Ban Comic Sans – A Typographic Meandering

The Integris Team — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:52:09 +0000

Remember the phrase “Desktop Publishing”? Well I do and it heralded a new day for graphic design and empowered many people and companies to take things into their own hands. The problem is that many people have no formal training in typography, design, color theory, art history or related fields. The result? People do whatever they want and many times sacrifice things like readability, credibility or relevance for convenience and the thrill of the moment… Enter Comic Sans.

OK, so I admit it… I am a little prejudiced.. but when one has been schooled in all things art, taken advanced classes in typography, art history, all manner of design and communications, both historical and contemporary, plus being indoctrinated into formal graphic design and communications standards, comic sans becomes mostly taboo except for the true intended use, bubble text in cartoons.

So ban Comic Sans? I say a resounding (& qualified) YES!… (We don’t let children play with matches so why should we let adults play with Comic Sans? OK.. so I digress a little).. My wife says no.. (but that’s a different blog post and likely a different blog) and most people say “But I like it! It’s cute and fun”… well I might be outnumbered in this, so all I can say is you better not put it on my gravestone!

That all said, I leave it to you dear reader, to determine whether Ban Comic Sans is really the best approach.

Here’s a great little video that captures some of the reasons why Comic Sans should be only used after careful consideration.

Enjoy!

Comic Sans from Sam and Anita on Vimeo.

Integris Marketing » Anita

Ban Comic Sans – A Typographic Meandering