Ask any magazine designer their golden rule for typography and in among the responses about legibility, keeping it simple and line spacing, you’re likely to hear the following: ‘Never use Comic Sans’.
Well, designers at the Sydney Morning Herald have ignored this advice, and caused a bit of a storm in the process. The paper has used Comic Sans on its front page in two speech-bubbles for a story about two Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) witnesses.
For those unfamiliar with Comic Sans, the font was designed in 1994 by Microsoft font designer Vincent Connare as speech text for an animated canine who help users navigate the Windows operating system. Since then it has gained a reputation for being somewhat amateurish – think home-made birthday cards.
Reaction to the Sydney Morning Herald’s choice first came from News Corp editor Rob Stott:
When they record the downfall of Fairfax, the comic sans front page will be seen as the beginning of the end pic.twitter.com/qEbOlfAeDn
— Rob Stott (@Rob_Stott) September 2, 2014
Further, the Guardian reports that: ‘Jenni Ryall referred on Mashable to the Herald’s use of “the most hated font in the world”, while Mumbrella covered the debate as it snowballed on Twitter.
The force of this criticism – combined with this story from Buzzfeed – was such that the Herald’s editor-in-chief, Darren Goodsir, chose to defend Comic Sans:
As you can see, I love the font – but am more than aware that my affections are not universally shared. As for the newspaper, the decision was made to match the surreal nature of the shocking revelations at the ICAC – and it was felt the font would best depict the comic-book feel we were trying to give to the front; as if to make a mockery of the appalling displays in the witness box from a former politician and a current parliamentarian. I am very pleased with the result, but that’s about it.
And the font he chose to write his note in? You can probably guess…
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