A movement I can get behind — a call to halt the chronic infestation of the horrid typeface Comic Sans:

Cringe-inducing abuse of Comic Sans. From the Comic Sans Flickr pool

Like the tone of a spoken voice, the characteristics of a typeface convey meaning. The design of the typeface is, in itself, its voice. Often this voice speaks louder than the text itself. Thus when designing a “Do Not Enter” sign the use of a heavy-stroked, attention-commanding font such as Impact or Arial Black is appropriate. Typesetting such a message in Comic Sans would be ludicrous. Though this is sort of misuse is frequent, it is unjustified. Clearly, Comic Sans as a voice conveys silliness, childish naivete, irreverence, and is far too casual for such a purpose. It is analogous to showing up for a black tie event in a clown costume.

And it’s not even a very good clown costume.

Posted on Saturday, March 10th, 2007 at 10:29 am | Filed under Design
RSS Feed for Replies