002: Comic Sans Rage

Why is Comic Sans so hated in the graphic design industry? 

I was about to do this whole entry in Comic Sans as well as a blinding default 8-colour font, but luckily for you, Blogspot knows what people don't like.

I used to use Comic Sans MS very frequently for things like my emails with backgrounds and colour fonts, for my pictures and fanart, and for school projects. This was when I was 11 years old. Now, I've since grown up, and I have seen something in a new but terrifying light, kind of when I learned what a Mary Sue was when I was still involved in fandoms. 

After much careful observation as well as research, it appears that the only appropriate time to use Comic Sans is:

1. if you want to be ridiculed by designers who have jumped on an elitist bandwagon
2. if you want to be ridiculed in general
3. never

The hate for this font is astounding. I'm quite sure it has even become a bandwagon, which I have happily hopped on to protect my budding career path as a graphic illustrator and designer myself. There has been many reasons presented as to why it is a bad font, which I will not discuss here, and there are plenty of good sites out there on Google that explains why - one of them being why it isn't even appropriate for comics. 

(Some good links will be posted up some time in the future when I make a part two to this.)

However, all of this still has not stopped people, nor in fact, cities. I just came back from a trip from Vegas for the holidays. This is a photo of a tour bus I immediately whipped my head and wide eyes at while near the Circus Circus hotel and casino which I invite you to click for full view of this amazing feat:

This bus uses Comic Sans. 

Oh my God.

That surprisingly wasn't the only example there! Las Vegas is the most prominent example of Comic Sans use and abuse that I have ever seen, and it amazes me how much they get away with it garnering from its reputation as the city of entertainment and flashy ads. You don't need Comic Sans with the things Las Vegas gets away with. Their souvenirs, their signs, their billboards...heck, I'm pretty sure even the prostitute cards they hand you in the streets at one point had Comic Sans.

(I would have grabbed one for the sake of example, but I had parents with me and I was hesitant on accepting pictures of naked women from shifty and silent strangers. But it also would have been a good example for a possible Retouch Rage entry in the future.)

I noted this to my mom, who gets annoyed when I pointed out "the most pettiest things". It essentially went something like this:

Me: Noooooooooo!
Mom: What the heck is your problem now?
Me: That bus has Comic Sans.
Mom: You always say that like it's the bane of existence. It's just what works!
Me: But that's not how it should be!
Mom: Well it works so too bad, let them do what they want to do.

This is not the only time I've raged at Comic Sans. While walking through a college with a good friend of mine - who is a budding entrepreneur with knowledge and abilities for graphic design - we walked through about God knows how many posters with Comic Sans. He made a joke about how he knew what font to use on my Christmas card.  

This reminds me of my hate for Ke$ha. Yes, I'm going to use a modern pop music analogy, please forgive me if this ends up sounding very distasteful. Now, most people talk about how haters are hating simply because they are jealous of the success of the other person. I "hate" plenty but I hope I ain't jealous of these people if the definition of jealous means I want to be them. However, I will fully 100% admit that yes, I am jealous that Ke$ha can't sing worth a dime yet she's gotten this far and somebody that is far more talented and can actually sing has not hit that level of mainstream.

This is what my hate for Comic Sans is. I am jealous and bitter that a font that people have been constantly teaching other people not to use for their marketing, branding, or on anything ever, is still being used very frequently in such a manner to the point where it is easily gotten away with. How is it that this typeface continues to be used to such a degree when it's not even that good? Is it because for many years it has been used to the point where, as my mom says, it works because either people are used to it, it has been linked with likability and friendliness, or just nobody cares anymore?

However, the important point of the rage against Comic Sans seems to not be about the font itself. Aspiring graphic designers all around the globe will know from careful research and not blindly following the wagon completely that the reason it is so loathed is because of how it represents poor typography choices, something that many amateurs such as myself struggle with when designing logos or print media. You are not going to see anything other than a serifs font for a jewelry brand - there are exceptions, yes, but it remains unusual to see a sans serif typeface on the logo of jewelry.

 

Here is a mock logo I have designed for a pet fish supplies brand about two or three months ago. There were many copies of this since it never ended up being final due to mixed responses from the public, which you can see on my website, Virtual Crisis Media. But this one was the one I liked. However, friend from earlier pointed out how the font for the subtitle of "pet fish supplies" (which is Franklin Gothic Heavy) said that it did not match the brand at all, so I changed it.

Here is the changed logo with a Lucida sans serif font in place of Franklin Gothic. I think this fits much more, but that's debatable. In the end, this wasn't a logo I continued developing since I really had no client other than myself and the public's feedback as this was a test logo.

Here's me having fun with the subject at hand with some Comic Sans. However, I'm currently sitting here staring at this wondering why it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. Whoa.

In the end it is popular topics like this in the industry that makes for good research and learning. As somebody who is still doing that, Comic Sans has certainly taught me a lot. From what I noticed, though, it doesn't end at Comic Sans, though - Papyrus is another example to note, as well as even the staple Arial and Times New Roman, but that's another blog entry. In the end, it's how you use it.

Jester, however, which I used to frequently use as well, is just one of those fonts I don't like anymore for the same reasons as Comic Sans.