Enough with Comic Sans already!!!
Anyone who has attended our seminar knows that I’m not a huge fan of Microsoft’s Comic Sans. It’s not that I hate the font so much as it is that I hate how it’s constantly misused and abused. From the napkin dispensers at McDonald’s, to any number of boardroom Powerpoint presentations, Comic Sans has become synonymous with bad/thoughtless design.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I was utterly shocked (approaching horrified) by what I saw on one of the 24 hour news networks last week.
It seems a famous Hollywood chimpanzee went crazy and began attacking a female visitor to his owner’s home, nearly tearing off her face and leaving her critically injured. To dramatize the gruesome scene for an upcoming program, some clever motion graphics artist (an intern I hope) ran the audio from the 911 call over the standard visual background – you know, the semitransparent video of a tape running with the operator and caller’s words identified on screen (see above) – only this “designer” decided to ignore all of the fonts that would have made an infinite amount more sense and picked Comic Sans to convey all of the horror of what took place on that day.
While I cringed thinking about the actual story, I may have been more horrified that this nightmarish event would be represented by such an inappropriate visual choice where fonts are concerned. How could they put that on the air? This woman had her hand bitten off and her face torn from her skull and they chose Comic Sans with all of its lightheartedness and whimsy? Enough is enough!
One of the most important lessons we teach in Design Matters regarding fonts is that every font speaks with a certain voice and it’s imperative that that voice compliment the conceptual ideas you’re trying to convey. In graphic design, text has syntactical meaning (the meaning of the words) as well as visual meaning, and font choice is of the utmost importance.
Since this was a promo for an upcoming program, (not the 911 call in its entirety and not a news report) a more broken, grungy font might have made more sense. If that would have been too over the top, something more straight forward such as Helvetica or Franklin Gothic would have made much more sense.
If you’ve never been to www.bancomicsans.com, stop what you’re doing for a second and pop over there. They sum it up in the opening paragraphs in a way that I wish everyone who designs images would consider. Now… they are more militant in their hatred of Comic Sans than I am, and I don’t think we literally need to ban it, but I hope next time you put together an image or use text in any graphical form, you’ll consider what you’re saying and which font best conveys your idea.
Here are a few sites where you can get some great FREE fonts:
What say you about Comic Sans? Do you love it? Hate it? When and where have you seen Comic Sans abused?
Karen Anderson said,
Wrote on February 26, 2009 @ 10:55 pm
Oh Jason, you know of my distaste for the mis-use of Comic Sans. I have seen it wrongly treated too many times to count. Did you get to see that little video about the font conference on my facebook page? I think I tagged you in it. If not, here’s a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3k5oY9AHHM
John said,
Wrote on February 27, 2009 @ 12:05 am
I think the who hating on Comic Sans is more of a trendy thing. It’s cool to hate Comic Sans kinda like it’s cool for art kids to smoke cloves. Is it really the worst font? No. Hobo is. Hobo is to the font world what black jelly beans are to a bag of jelly beans.
Tim said,
Wrote on February 27, 2009 @ 3:26 pm
You’re obsessed! I never notice it and I’m a TV/Movie critic by hobby. I think you don’t like it because it’s MICROSOFT Comic Sans. There are far worse atrocities out there. My current pet peeve is seeing the lighting (usually green or purple) in the reflections of actor’s glasses. That’s WAY more unprofessional than a common font. “Heroes” is probably the biggest offender, but I’ve seen it in “Monk”, “The Closer”, “Eleventh Hour”, “Life”, “Life on Mars”…. But that’s my thing right now. Maybe no one else cares or notices… like I don’t care or notice Comic Sans. Everyone has some pet peeve. Yours with Comic Sans just seems to be a life-long commitment.
You know I love you. Just yanking your chain!
S said,
Wrote on April 19, 2009 @ 8:29 pm
Of all the things to be worried about in life….
GBArg said,
Wrote on April 28, 2009 @ 10:43 am
If people would apply the energy wasted on a basically trivial choice of typeface instead to the horrible mistreatment of the poor little apostrophe, this would be a better world, dont’ you think? Its appalling how it’s use is abused.