If you don’t already know, Comic Sans is the most over-used and annoying font since the creation of man(!) It’s one of those fonts most of us can recognise because it’s been around so damn long! I included it in my blog post last year titled ‘My Top Six Fonts I am Sick to Death of and will be Deleting – NOW!’, so, yeah, it’s not one of my favourites(!) You can read that post here.
We have the ‘ever-innocent’ Microsoft Corp to thank, for commissioning this monstrosity in 1994. ‘Thanks, Bill!’. It’s generally mis-used because of it’s ‘comical and informal’ appearance. ‘Yeah, right’. As it was a free inclusion in earlier versions of Microsoft Windows, it was used in all instances from large-scale signage to business documents such as Annual Reports and brochures. It’s STILL in use today! Every time I see it, I recognise it and wonder WHO chose that particular font and what they were thinking when committing such a sin. It’s got a cult-following for being the most annoying font in existence!
Anyway, on a recent trip to see my dentist I discovered this font in large-scale plastered across the reception desk! It must have been at-least 12ft wide! I took a sneaky photo whilst I was waiting my turn:
Why? Comic Sans should be BANNED!
As you can see it’s a nice touch, with the reverse-cut frosted vinyl applied onto the glass facia. I’m sure the NHS didn’t employ any cowboy dogsbody to do the job, and it seems well-done. So, why the HELL have they chose Comic Sans in such a setting?. It’s then made worse that all the letters are lower-case and the tracking has been increased so there is more space between the letters. It looks naff!
A simple, smart and neutral font such as Lucida Sans or even Arial would have looked so much more professional. Why spread the letters out?
As a designer, I can’t help my beady eye critiquing every detail on my travels. This HAS to be one of the worst examples of design I’ve seen. There’s simply no excuse for the use of such a font in such a setting.
I know the NHS is facing cutbacks this year, seems like they’ve already sacked the graphic design department!