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Why Comic Sans MS Is A Perfectly Designed Font, Seriously
By now, we’ve all heard of the infamously popular font Comic Sans MS. You probably get a hard time when you use this font; in fact, this font has become quite the punchline in most professional environments. Designers hate to use it, and professionals are deemed unprofessional when they use it! Is there any place for comic sans to be used? Is comic sans a poorly designed font? Do you think this font should never be used in any professional environment?
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Comic Sans MS aka Mr. Popular
Comic Sans MS is one of the most popular fonts ever, designed by legendary Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by the Microsoft Corporation. Connare was inspired by the comic book style typography from the early days of comic books. He adapted this style and created the font to be used for informal documents or specifically children’s media.
This particular font received an enormous amount of backlash in the professional community. Many professionals deemed it to be informal, casual and even called “awful” by some. Nowadays, even the average consumer makes judgments on the font, and it’s gone as far as being made into a meme. This sparks a question, how and why does this font generate so many conversions from professionals and average consumers?
Hidden Meanings In Visual Communications
Fonts, like many other visual media, are a communication tool that carries hidden meanings. Just like symbols, fonts can represent a purpose, feeling, and emotion when you look at them. This phenomenon is called semiotics. An easy example of this phenomenon is when you see a symbol of a man and woman on a blue sign in a public area, this means there’s a public toilet. The symbol represents something beyond just a man and a woman.
Comic Sans also carries this hidden meaning to be used to communicate a purpose, and it’s our job as professionals in the marketing industry to decode that hidden meaning and use it to our advantage for the right target audience.
Professionals & Semiotics
The legendary Steve Jobs once said, “.. the design is not what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”. To explain how it works is to understand the semiotics of Comic Sans MS. Vincent Connare never intended the font to be used as a corporate communications tool for mature audiences; it was intended for kids. The inspiration, the playfulness of the strokes, and the inconsistency of the shape communicate this, and we, as professionals, should understand that better. This particular font makes everything that it touches casual and playful.
Comic Sans MS is not a bad font; in fact, it is far from it. This is the perfect font because it was designed with a specific feel and usage in mind.
In fact, Comic Sans MS is one of the best fonts to be used for dyslexic users, according to research made by the British Dyslexia Association. Teachers worldwide use Comic Sans MS in their classrooms because it works! Comic Sans helps students learn better, so if you are a creative professional that has a younger target demographic and they have dyslexia, by all means, it is, in fact, the perfect font.
Dear Designers, Marketers & All Creative Professionals
Comic Sans MS is not a bad font; in fact, it is far from it. This is the perfect font because it was designed with a specific feel and usage in mind. Comic Sans is casual, childish, and playful because Vincent Connare designed it for kids.
So, don’t be a professional who misuses a communication tool and then blames the tool. You may not always use tools such as color, image, tagline, and shapes the way it was originally intended, but that should not come at the price of accusing said tools; instead, be more observant and understanding of its origin. After all, it is our job to guide the average consumers to the right products or services with all the tools we have. It is our job as creative professionals to decode the hidden message of every visual cue and combine that visual language into something cohesive that can communicate information to the particular target market / demographic.
Final Thoughts
So are you planning to use Comic Sans in the future? Not sure what font to use or where to start? This is where our Creative Studio & Elite Team comes in! The creative professionals & marketers of Adcore can build a proper design and marketing message for your products and service without the misuse of marketing tools in the process. Learn more about our Creative Studio and Elite Team here!
Don’t forget to share this article with your fellow professionals who hate Comic Sans MS!
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