When I was in school, there was a concerted effort to ban educate one another on the font Comic Sans. As a designer, fonts are up there with choosing the right tie, the right faucet for your kitchen and even the right car for your image. We would equate using Comic Sans with the Swine Flu and water pollution.

Like all polarizing elements of life, there’s a story behind it. I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal article on the subject and learned that Vincent Connare was the typographer whose legacy is now sealed in a comic-y font. From the article,

The proliferation of Comic Sans is something of a fluke. In 1994, Mr. Connare was working on a team at Microsoft creating software that consumers eventually would use on home PCs. His designer’s sensibilities were shocked, he says, when, one afternoon, he opened a test version of a program called Microsoft Bob for children and new computer users. The welcome screen showed a cartoon dog named Rover speaking in a text bubble. The message appeared in the ever-so-sedate Times New Roman font.

Mr. Connare says he pulled out the two comic books he had in his office, “The Dark Knight Returns” and “Watchmen,” and got to work, inspired by the lettering and using his mouse to draw on a computer screen. Within a week, he had designed his legacy.

Each font out there has a personality. When you design a new piece you have a job just triyng to sort out which font to use. There are so many to choose from and each are different in very subtle ways. Which is where we come in and why we show you so many options.

PS: Mr Connare has another font called Magpie available from Dalton Maag.

Image: Swiss Miss