It’s not every day that font choice gets thrust into the national dialogue, but that’s what happened when a White House Counsel used Comic Sans the other day in an email to Congress. And it’s not the first time much-reviled Comic Sans was the font of choice in the West Wing.
It’s a font scientifically proven to elicit a roller coaster of emotions and be seen as too childish. Whether one thinks this is a calculated way of making the subject matter silly along a strategy of discrediting the accusations or just a matter of a near-default choice of questionable aesthetics, it definitely got a reaction. It’s not a choice I would make, but it does make me think about expected vs unexpected choices and how historical norms impact reaction. Where does appropriateness of font choice come from?
DY