Higgs boson: God particle presentation written in Comic Sans, Twitter reacts

After the Twitter-verse exploded yesterday about the Higgs boson and so called “God particle”, Twitter was reacting for a different reason.

Scientists unveiled their research in a thorough slideshow, using the font Comic Sans. You see photos of people posting memos in Comic Sans in offices only to be replied to with “We’re a ____ company, not a lemonade stand. Stop using Comic Sans,” and the like. So is Comic Sans really just for a child’s entrepreneurial world?  Jokes about the God particle having a sense of humour aside, this sparked the marketing and business debate; does font style matter?

As an intern for a health organization in Ontario, my personal answer is yes. I’m quite confident that if I were to hand in a project to my supervisors in Comic Sans the “what were you thinking” talk would be imminent. I went searching and couldn’t come up with any hard facts or studies done to state that people attribute a company negatively for using Comic Sans, but then again it’s just a font; people do have other things to worry about.

I think that the advancement of technology and the constant readiness of information we now have the time to start to deconstruct style and layout. We’re not just drawn to facts and information that are put on the paper; we look at the plate first and then get into the meat and potatoes. It’s not just enough for a company to put across good data, they have to look good doing it as well. Think of your font as the suit of your content wardrobe, fonts like Helvetica and Calibri are the Gucci and Armani’s of today, Times New Roman, that slightly out-dated but still quite functional suit and Comic Sans…that one suit you stare thinking…what on earth was I thinking….

All information taken from the Ottawa Citizen Article:

Higgs Boson: God particle presentation written in Comic Sans, Twitter reacts.
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