Posts Tagged Taboo

My wife rolls her eyes at me every time I point out a font, saying “There’s Neutra” or “Man, I love Rockwell.” Then I give her a hard time whenever she critiques stitching in some embroidery or the quality of a costume. (She’s a seamstress.) Being a designer, I notice the use of many fonts out in the real world, mostly ones that I’ve used before or use on a regular basis. That being said there are a number of fonts that make designers cringe when they see them used.

Here are a few of the usual suspects.

Comic Sans: This font and Papyrus (below) I would say are tied for first place on this list. Comic Sans I’ve seen most with people trying to “spritz up” Word documents, reports and PowerPoint presentations. It would seem that this font feels most at home in Microsoft desktop publishing programs. People like it because it looks different and has a hand-drawn feel to it but really it was only intended to be used for text in cartoons or, ehem, comics. It’s not suited for business use. Check out Ban Comic Sans.

Papyrus: This font’s largest fault is that it is grossly overused. Sure it has a unique exotic look to it, but you see it in more places than the invisible deck! Plus there’s the added benefit of the horrible kerning between uppercase and lowercase letters built right in! Really, you don’t even have to do anything! By the way, according to Wikipedia, even the font’s creator agrees the font has become overused.

Brush Script: Aah, yes. A nice vintage font. Please only use it to compliment a nice vintage design.

Times New Roman: The default font in Microsoft Word. There’s nothing wrong with it. I’d just use something else if you want to look different. Try Minion Pro instead.

Arial: This is the Windows version of Helvetica. Why use an imitation if you can use the real thing? Personally, I like Akzidenz Grotesk better than Helvetica.

Well, there you have it. What fonts do you love or love to hate? Let’s hear it in the comments!