Vincent Connare Must Die
Ever since I can recall Comic Sans has been referred to primarily with hatred or sarcasm and with deep undertones of disdain. No s...
People of a certain age might remember Microsoft’s short-lived attempt at making computers more user-friendly for the layman, an interactive tool called Microsoft Bob. This included a sort of mascot in the form of a cartoon dog named Rover. Rover would “speak” in comic-style speech bubbles to guide users through the new personal computing technology. An early iteration of Rover shows the text in his speech bubble set in Times Roman. Not an ideal font for a cartoon dog. So Vincent Connare created Comic Sans in order to fit the concept (Dowling, Guardian). Sadly, Rover was put down after only about a year and was only included on the Windows 95 release (Kleinman, Huffington Post). But somehow Comic Sans lived on, included to this day on Windows releases.
Serif typefaces like Times Roman or Bookman are designed to be easy to read in long strings and large blocks of text. Sans serif typefaces like Helvetica or Tahoma are meant to call attention to viewers and be easy to read from a distance. While it probably shouldn’t be used in a professional e-mail or in a logo, handwritten typefaces like Comic Sans have their place, too. Like, well, in a comic. Or in an ad for a children’s toy. The point is, it has a place, it has a purpose. Connare said in a 2011 interview with PostDesk, “A great font is one that fits its purpose.” (PostDesk, An Interview)
It’s not entirely my intention to defend the creation or continued proliferation of Comic Sans, it’s to reorient the view of it in order to paint a clearer picture of its creator. Vincent Connare may have gained infamy with Comic Sans but his life and career add up to far more than a single controversial typeface. Forget for a moment that you hate Comic Sans. Pretend you have never seen it in your life.
Connare was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied painting and photography at the New York Institute of Technology . His early career was in photography but he eventually landed at Compugraphic where his photography skills translated nicely in the company’s transition from photosetting type to digital typesetting. He remained at Compugraphic until 1993 when he was hired by Microsoft (Design Week, 2008). During his time with Microsoft he created and assisted in the development of a number of fonts including Trebuchet MS, Webdings, Tahoma, and of course Comic Sans (Design Week, 2008). His early work on type hinting continues to influence type designers to this day.
In 1999 Connare left Microsoft to continue his education abroad. He moved to England to study Type Design at Reading University where he earned his MA in a field he’d already built his career on. After Reading he returned to America but was shortly offered a position at Dalton Maag, a London-based type design agency (Design Week, 2008). He accepted the Dalton Maag position and moved back to London to where he continues to live and work and receive hate mail.
Works CIted:
Dowling, Tim, “The Comic Sans creator explains how he made the world's most-hated font”, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2014/jun/04/comic-sans-creator-vincent-connare
Kleinman, Alexis, “Vincent Connare, Inventor Of 'The Most Hated Font”,' Defends Himself, The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/vincent-connare_n_3837441.html?utm_hp_ref=influencers-and-innovation
“An interview with Vincent Connare, creator of the Comic Sans font on what he thinks of it now, future of typography”, PostDesk, http://archive.postdesk.com/comic-sans-creator-vincent-connaire-typography
“Vincent Connare, typographic engineer”, Design Week, October 8, 2008, http://www.simonloxley.com/ar_03_vince.html
