By Steve Szita,
Director, Dazzling CVs Ltd.
Comic Sans walks into a pub. The barman looks up and says, ‘We don’t serve your type.’
Yes, it’s a bad, bad joke but it does underline a very strong undercurrent of annoyance (rage in some quarters that many find difficult to suppress) that accompanies this font whenever and wherever it’s used.
You’ve all seen Comic Sans probably more times than you realise. After all, it’s virtually everywhere.
And this is what it looks like. What a beauty, huh?
But how did this poor innocent font end up so despised? Well, let’s go back to the beginning, because that itself gives clues as to what went wrong…
Comic Sans has only been around since 1994. Yes, I know it seems like a lot longer (was there really a time before Comic Sans?) – but don’t be fooled. That’s just one tiny part of its insidious nature!
It was created by Designer Vincent Connare. While working for Microsoft, he was asked to check a children’s programme call Microsoft Bob. The programme’s ‘Welcome’ screen showed a cartoon dog speaking in a text bubble. However, much to Connare’s surprise and displeasure, the dog was speaking in Times New Roman. He felt that this was completely wrong. The font was too conservative and restrained, unlike the fun and colourful cartoon it was placed in. So, he set about designing a friendly and informal font that was more appropriate for the comic book environment.
This is where things started to go wrong. When completed, someone at Microsoft saw the font and instantly took a shine to it. Before Connare knew it, it had been included in Windows 95 and was readily available in applications such as Word. The genie was out of the bottle. Pandora’s Box was open. It had been released onto an unsuspecting global public. Like a plague, it wasn’t long before Comic Sans was springing up all over the world and appearing on everything.
Instead of staying in children’s games and on children’s party invitations that parents create in MS Word, Comic Sans quickly developed a momentum of its own. Restaurants started using it on menus, companies starting to advertise with it on the sides of their vehicles, shops put up ‘Sale now on’ signs in their windows. If you thought this was bad, then take a deep breath. Comic Sans even found its way onto tombstones, emergency exits signs and hospital wards!!!
As the Ban Comic Sans movement, set up by two Indianapolis graphic designers, Dave and Holly Combs, say, the latter uses are “analogous to showing up for a black-tie event in a clown costume”.
So, why is it so widely used? How has it made the jump from a children’s font that is cutesy, dumb and immature to a global phenomena? Is there something inherently attractive in it that only certain people can see (in the same way certain people get drawn into cults or watching ‘Top Gear’?). Microsoft itself has called it “A groovy script font that is extremely readable on-screen at small sizes making it a useful text face”. But then they own it, so they would.
Certainly, it’s not an easy font to read for any length of time and it’s very hard on the eye after only a few lines. The shape and thickness of the letters cause eye strain. Many argue that sans serif fonts are harder to read than serif fonts, because they don’t possess the little ‘tails’ on each letter that lead your eyes neatly into each new word. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a problem if the sans serif font is clean, elegant and well constructed, such as Arial or Verdana. Also, these fonts have a well constructed default kerning. Comic Sans doesn’t. Another major criticism of the font is that its too easy to see – too noticeable. So, whatever its used for, you don’t see the message. You see the messenger.
All this boils down to one shattering but inevitable conclusion. CVs should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER be written in Comic Sans.
Got that.
Why? Because it’s too childish. Too informal. Would you include clip art of Mickey Mouse or My Little Pony on your CV? No. Then why would you use Comic Sans? Let me illustrate this further: Which one of these people would you be more likely to employ (unless you were employing clowns, of course).
Consider this statement written in Arial:
Strong marketing background and qualifications, diverse operating experience with functional expertise in International Sales and Marketing, new business development, strategic planning.
Now again in Comic Sans:
Strong marketing background and qualifications, diverse operating experience with functional expertise in International Sales and Marketing, new business development, strategic planning.Doesn’t really have the same impact, does it?
Or how about this, written in Times New Roman:
A committed, proactive and dynamic professional with extensive experience in the engineering design industry. Possesses a wealth of knowledge gained in the automotive sector and familiar with all current CAD and design packages appropriate to the industry, coupled with extensive professional exposure to an impressive range of leading manufacturers.
And again in Comic Sans:
A committed, proactive and dynamic professional with extensive experience in the engineering design industry. Possesses a wealth of knowledge gained in the automotive sector and familiar with all current CAD and design packages appropriate to the industry, coupled with extensive professional exposure to an impressive range of leading manufacturers.So, who would you rather employ?
Therefore, I think it’s very clear that a CV should never have any Comic Sans on it. I know it’s easy to fall into the trap of ‘trying to stand out’ or ‘trying to look a bit wacky’ (yuk!) – NO. Don’t do it. Ever. These thoughts come from the same instinct that urges us to turn our CVs into ‘Wanted’ posters (Ugh!) or print them out on luminous yellow paper. Believe me, deploy all or any of these strategies and you’ll be heading for the bin faster than you thought possible.
Sans a doubt.
……..
© Dazzling CVs Ltd. 2010
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