Comic Sans, a font that I'm pretty certain you all would have heard of or seen over the years. Now in the design world, it has a pretty negative reputation, everyone has their own reasons for liking and not liking - mainly not liking! Mostly due to its inconsistent shapes, sizes and spaces.
In 2022 Dyslexia Scotland launched, in my opinion, a genius campaign around the font. Highlighting how it helps over 780 million people around the world read better.
As an illustrator I don’t hate the font, and that could be skewed by either my love for authenticity in design, meaning not everything has to be perfectly spaced or symmetrical, or that it does in fact help me follow the text better. But, would I use it in my designs? No. Which is what Dyslexia Scotland’s campaign is all about. Despite the font helping millions of people, designers still won’t choose to use it. Therefore, why aren’t we making more fonts that could continue to help but also be aesthetically pleasing to the eye?
Once I’d seen the work Dyslexia Scotland had put out, it got me thinking about the topic. So naturally, I went on to create my own font, incorporating all the guidelines included in the campaign that makes Comic Sans so great for people with dyslexia.
While developing my own typeface, I intentionally deviated from conventional design principles, opting for imperfection as a deliberate choice rather than a flaw. This involved varying the thicknesses of letters, ensuring that each stroke had a distinct weight to enhance readability. I also focused on differentiating letters that may be seen to resemble each other, such as 'b' and 'd', 'p' and 'q', ensuring that their distinctions were pronounced to minimise confusion.
Embracing asymmetry and irregularity, I aimed to replicate the unique flow of handwriting. By challenging traditional typography ‘norms’ and choosing functionality over aesthetics, I wanted to create a font that not only fell into the guidelines that Dyslexia Scotland provided but also celebrated the beauty of imperfection in design.
Designing for inclusivity is something that has always been at the forefront of my mind, and with design being something we all digest in some way, shape or form each day I believe it is something the design world should always be thinking about.
Just like the way we all digest information is changing, more video, less reading, to now, shorter videos and more of them.
While fonts like Comic Sans have their place in aiding readability for those with dyslexia, there's a great opportunity for designers to create more aesthetically pleasing options that hold the same level of accessibility. By embracing imperfection and putting functionality first, we can not only improve the reading experience for millions but also celebrate the diversity of how we interact with design. As we are constantly evolving in how we consume information, keeping inclusivity at the forefront of our design decisions is only going to appeal to wider audiences and challenge our design thinking for the better.
