Wow! I do apologise for my lack of updates recently! I’ve had the laptop in for a service and as I’d chewed away one of the corners and got drool in the speakers- His Lordship wasn’t very impressed and refused to pay for it to be fixed. It was only when Diet Girl gave me her old laptop today that I’ve managed to get back online, and let me tell you, I’ve missed the World Wide Web so much it hurts!
Anyways, nothing’s really changed too much back here in the Vizcom Design office- The Master, The Happy Man and Diet Girl are all pretty much the same since I lost wrote. I’m still sat behind the filing cabinet on my computer, although this may not be happening for much longer as I heard The Master discussing the fact that we may have another person joining our team, and thus, our office in the not so distant future. I wonder where their desk will be??
Otherwise, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my last couple of days of being back online and have been learning lots again- I’ve seriously felt like my brain’s switched off without my beloved internet access.
My latest ‘Big Thing’ is the history of Typography, geeky I know, but also so very interesting. It all started off when I heard an interview on the radio with a man who runs a website called Ban Comic Sans.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, Comic Sans is a font produced by Microsoft in the early 90s to mimic the fonts used in comic book strips and to be used informally. However, with the rise of the internet and of course the evolution of home computers, Typography as a highly respected art form has been invaded as everyone who has the right software, and sadly, not enough design skills or common sense it seems, when it comes to using the right text for the job.
For example, the Ban Comic Sans website features a gallery that is just what I’m talking about. If you are writing say, an advertisement for a job at your company, you would use maybe a Times New Roman font, maybe a Helvetica. You certainly wouldn’t use Comic Sans as, in the words of the Ban Comic Sans peeps, it ‘conveys silliness, childish naivete, irreverence, and is far too casual for such a purpose. It is analogous to showing up for a black tie event in a clown costume.’
I cannot help but agree.
It’s all very nice having design software, Photoshop and the internet available to everyone to exercise their creative skills, but it’s worth remembering that although you have the technology at your fingertips, you may not have the experience, ability or flair that you wish you had, and in the words of Diet Girl ‘if you’re messing around with the appearance of your business, one wrong font, colour, image, logo or could be devastating. It would be like turning up to a movie premier wearing a shell suit.’
You may remember that a couple of months ago, I gave a nod to Websites That Suck, which provides a catalogue of shockingly bad websites for you to chuckle over? I’ve been through that site lots and it’s kept me entertained many an afternoon since, but the thing is that a lot of the websites listed there are owned by businesses that have obviously paid designers to create this monstrosity *ahem* I mean online presence for them.
And now I’ve seen all of those bad websites, I can’t help but critique every website I land upon, whether personal or business, and it’s all I can do to stop myself clicking the ‘Contact’ button (if you’re lucky enough for the webmaster to have bothered including one) and saying ‘please don’t do that to your website!’
If you have the time today, have a read through the Ban Comic Sans website. It’s interesting, it’s informative, and it certainly makes you think about how badly selected fonts can affect the message you’re trying to put across.