This month, Comic Sans celebrates its 30th birthday. Yes, the typeface we all love to hate is now barreling toward middle age.
Cue the collective groan.
But, but! We’d be remiss if we didn’t pay our respects to this much-maligned specimen of typography history. I chatted with Monotype Creative Type Director Terrence Weinzierl, co-designer of the 2011 extension, Comic Sans Pro.
Fresh out of school, Weinzierl was working at Ascender during the MS Office 2010 release, working on bringing OpenType features to the software’s core typefaces (Comic Sans, Impact, Trebuchet, etc.).
“Vincent Connaire drew the original typeface using only his mouse. It was a digital typeface from birth,” Weinzierl said. “To create Pro, I mimicked Connaire’s process. Using a Wacom tablet, I drew all the new characters, ligatures, dingbats, swash caps, everything.” Weinzierl also designed italic styles (Connaire’s original only offered regular and bold).
“The irony was not lost on me—adding professional features to a cartoon typeface,” he said. “When we released the retail version as Comic Sans Pro, we did it on April Fools Day.”
But, for all the ridicule (even the self-deprecating kind), perhaps Comic Sans deserves a reconsideration.
In a recent conversation with Brad Atkinson, creator of the Braille Institute’s Atkinson Hyperlegible, I learned that teachers love Comic Sans. Classrooms have tested it against workhorses like Arial and Helvetica). Whether down to “ugliness” or its spacious aperture, students retained more of what they learned when it was delivered in Comic Sans.
There’s also some talk about Comic Sans being dyslexia-friendly (though I haven’t found any specific studies where the typeface was actually studied in this regard). The things that potentially make it so (such as open character spacing) are also true about many other typefaces.
“It’s so human, modest, and approachable, and people see themselves in it.” Weinzierl, who has a seven-year-old, said of Comic Sans’ appeal. “It doesn’t look serious or scary. You don’t want them to be overwhelmed by learning to read and write. Comic Sans looks like a child’s handwriting. It looks like how teachers teach kids to write letters (like the i with a serif or a single story a).”
There’s also the subtext of Comic Sans that speaks to a different kind of accessibility: it’s not for designers (read: it’s not for aesthetes), it’s democratic in its personality—an approachable font for everyone. And not only because it’s been on every Windows computer for decades.
One example of this is the let’s-just-call-it strategic use of the Comic Sans on Tory social feeds in the lead-up to the Brexit vote, which seemed to thumb its nose at the left-leaning voter with self-awareness. (It also could have come down to a split-second decision by a well-meaning intern on a fast-moving campaign, but exploring the former is interesting.)
Ten years ago, Comic Sans appeared on t-shirts in response to Eric Garner’s brutal murder at the hands of the NYPD. Garner’s words, “I can’t breathe,” laid out in all caps, overwhelmingly in Comic Sans, became a striking black-and-white show of solidarity worn by NBA players in the weeks after his death. Critics came calling. The content of the message wasn’t up for debate; the font choice was. But, as John Brownlee pointed out in Fast Company, “Comic Sans is better than any other font at conveying innocence.” What better way to illustrate the tragedy of Eric Garner’s senseless killing? “It can be a very powerful typeface when used well,” Brownlee wrote.
The shirt the Bull’s Derrick Rose wore during pre-game warm-up is now in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture.
Isn’t design’s highest power in sparking conversation?
Great Design is always up for debate. Great, after all, is subjective. It can be a bit like Marmite—you’re a fan or not. Good design, however, is effective design—effective in delivering information to encourage a response.
“It’s not just a joke typeface,” said Weinzierl. “It’s also very human. Art doesn’t have to be beautiful to be effective.” In this, Comic Sans will continue to have a role to play.
While there are no plans to design a Comic Sans 3.0, if Weinzierl was tasked with this challenge, he said it would be all about the variability. But, he also acknowledges that, especially with a typeface like Comic Sans, it wouldn’t be recognizable if you change the core too much. “It would have to balance newness and comfort and maintain a lot of that original DNA.”
Let’s be honest. If someone were to create a contemporary take on Comic Sans, imagine, for a moment, the ensuing firestorm from all sides of the debate. In its own way, Weinzierl believes that Comic Sans is an artifact and an icon.
When I asked him about his favorite sighting of Comic Sans in the wild, he said. “I saw it on a menu at a local Thai restaurant. Seeing it used in a fast-casual noodle shop was memorable but maybe not my favorite. It’s interesting when it shows up in places like that. A professional designer didn’t design it, but it’s endearing. I respect the restaurant owner for the choice.”
“Comic Sans is kind of like Crocs,” Weinzierl said. “It doesn’t have to be a formal, slick typeface to be a successful thing.”
So, happy 30th, Comic Sans. In the words of a fellow designer,
What would our visual landscape be without dear Comic Sans? It tries so hard to be liked
Don Tarallo, Typeface Designer and Graphic Designer, Tarallo Design
and knows no limits of context, taking even the most serious things in stride. But watch out—
it can stir lollipop cravings and send one’s imagination out on roller skates!