Take Comic Sans Serif, for example. Its rounded letters gives it an almost happy, jovial look. It's great for advertising children's parties, magicians and for early years literacy, due to the characters being easy to distinguish. But, for professional applications, it just looks wrong.
In a past life, I would regularly have to examine confirmations. These confirm (surprisingly) the right of the people who have inherited a deceased's property ownership and, consequently, right to sell. Yes, believe it or not, there were areas of Scotland where those would be issued in Comic Sans Serif. It didn't look professional for that context and just a wee bit too happy too.
Recently, just round the corner from the manse I spotted this:
A safety notice. I know it's perhaps been printed with Comic Sans for legibility, but it looks too happy, too welcoming. It just looks wrong.
Different fonts for different occasions and settings is good. It allows, perhaps even the same message, to get to a range of people. An academic audience may prefer Times New Roman, an enthusiastic amateur arial and young children Comic Sans. (Can you see where I am going with this?)
Surely church - or perhaps not the 'formal' act of worship but church going into the world - be like this. Adapting its style - its font - to best serve the needs of the varying people within its community. That includes resources, dress, music, language. But the core message remains the same. The good news of Jesus.
It's worth noting that although I am a designer, I don't hate Comic Sans. Its more the abuse of Comic Sans that offends me.
ReplyDeleteYou are right on the count of legibility. Comic Sans tests very well with people with Dyslexia. Its wobbly un-regimented forms help reduce the overload that more regular fonts have on those readers.
If we force-ably removed Comic Sans from peoples PCs in a misguided attempt at enforcing style and class on the world, a little bit of happiness and accessibility might be lost.
So stop the abuse of Comic Sans, not the use of it.