Comic Sans: The Where and Why
Comic Sans is truly hated by many designers. It’s almost like the kryptonite of the design industry. Most of the hatred really stems from the mere over use and improper use of the font. With it being included with the Microsoft OS, it tends to be used by everyday people trying to spice up that newsletter, signage, letterhead or memo. Any time a designer sees this done they want to break something…anything! The hatred is truly that deep. At least for some of them it is.
Now there has to be a reason that this font exists. I mean, it’s not like someone purposely designed it to terrorize designers. The other day I stumbled across a website that actually has an article written by the poor sole that designed the font. Can you imagine how he must feel to have fathered such a wicked beast?
According to the article…
“There was no intention to include the font in other applications other than those designed for children when I (Vincent Connare) designed Comic Sans. The inspiration came at the shock of seeing Times New Roman used in an inappropriate way.”
Well if Times shocked him, can you imagine how seeing Comic Sans on a lawyer’s business card might shock him? I tend to think it might send him into convulsions. It was designed for children. Not professionals. It’s not something that conveys being casual…it conveys being unprofessional and childish. This, I think, is the true reason why designers despise the font so much. They despise how it is used. Fonts have their place. Comic Sans has its own place. It just doesn’t belong in the “professional” world.
Now after reading the article some of you might be thinking…well of course something that wretched came from Microsoft. Well according to this article, Apple actually came out with their own version; a copy cat of Comic Sans. It can be seen at the very end of the article. I won’t post the picture because it’s just too terrifying. I just have one question…why?!
So I have bad news. Comic Sans has a twin called Chalkboard!
Bookmarking:
January 31st, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Actually, Comic Sans is one of a very few fonts that I use on a fairly regular basis other than Ariel, Times New Roman, and a few others.
However, I don’t mix it with any other font. I only use it in situations where there will be a relatively few words. The best example would be in some of my PowerPoint presentations. In the last few months, I have been taking a different tangent in my presentations than the rest of my co-workers. Where most of them are still presenting their material in the very heavily bulletted manner that PowerPoint makes so easy, I’ve been stripping my presentations down to the bare minimum, usually only presenting a single statement or idea on each slide. In this kind of setting, I find that Comic Sans works very well — at least for me — since there are very no other fonts for it to conflict with.
February 1st, 2006 at 9:58 am
I think that this article explains exactly why many graphic designers HATE comic sans… it is over used and often used “wrong”.
I think that it’s perfectly fine for what it was intended for - a casual, “fun” font used for kids stuff or cartoon-style work. But you’re absolutely right - it doesn’t belong on a lawyer’s business card. (That goes for you doctors out there too!) =^..^=
February 1st, 2006 at 6:43 pm
If this is the way designers think I’m glad I’m not a designer. If somebody uses a font and is happy with it that’s good enough for me. If it makes you unhappy -tough. If it doesn’t convey what they want to convey they’ll find that out over time. The good news is that the vast majority of people don’t have a designer mentality.
February 1st, 2006 at 9:43 pm
I think your judgment of designers on a whole based on the fact that some dislike a single font is kind of rash. I don’t dispute the fact that designers think differently and are a special breed. It is what makes us designers!
Part of being a designer is providing education for the client. When a designer has a client that is requesting an “over used” or an “inappropriately used” font, in my opinion it is their responsibility to explain to their client why the font choice may not be the best. As designers we know what works and what doesn’t. It is the service that we are employed to provide. It is our responsibility to help the client convey the message that they are looking to convey. It would be inappropriate for us to just sit back and let the client “find that out over time.”
Ultimately the client makes the final decision. As designers we do not always agree with the choices that are made. Designers have likes and dislikes, just like any other profession. This font just happens to be one that many (but not all) designers agree to be a dislike.
February 6th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
I believe this post sums it up quite well actually. For those who think that designers are just being picky and people should just use whatever they like, really doesn’t have much knowledge of how much the actual design of a font can affect the image of whatever you put it on. That’s why we as designers are taught and trained to sniff these things out and to point out exactly when you should or shouldn’t use something. I agree that is it also our jobs to explain why certain things work and don’t work.
Again, not everyone can be designers which is fine (since that’s why designers have a job), but it should also be the responsability of those who want their projects to be designed correctly and efficiantly to go to a designer. Like I mentioned in one of my blog posts: Playing is fine, but don’t use your “playing” for graphics and art that you want to be taken in a professional level.