Results tagged “typography”

The way the Métro started its life strongly influenced signage in the stations. In the early days, a number of commercial companies ran the different Métro lines. This is one of the reasons why the inscriptions varied enormously, from enamel signage to big ceramic station nameplates. Sans serifs were mostly used for big signage, and on the carriages, letters were painted in a style appropriate to the carriage design. Early on, it was Art Nouveau forms. At the time, most of the transportation procedure was done manually by rail workers, from the sale of individual tickets, to the semi-automatic door closing. Later, the national rail network, the RATP, took over.

From Métro Type, a history of type and signage in the Paris Metro system.

Ten years ago, then-Microsoft fontographer Vincent Connare launched the Comic Sans Cafe.

During 1994 I noticed that a large number of cartoon/comic style software titles were under development at Microsoft. As Microsoft Creative Writer had a need for FUN fonts, I had an idea to make a lettering script similar to the lettering used by the major comic books.

There was a consistent style used in comics, which was quite unlike the style of lettering you see in newspaper cartoon strips. I also noticed that many people were inappropriately using drafting lettering in comic speech balloons.

Five years later, and half a decade ago, more from Vincent:

I can understand some of the sentiment behind the 'ban comic sans' campaign as often the font is used in an inappropriate way. Comic Sans was designed originally for use only by a comic application. That application and its inspiration was Microsoft Bob. MSBob used Times New Roman in cartoon balloons for the words of cartoon animals and characters...

Having said that, I feel that the use of my image, taken from a photo posted on my personal website, is inappropriate. The way people use the font and its distribution with Microsoft products has nothing to do with me.

The campaign he's referring to, of course, is ban comic sans.