An increase in productivity will come from first being aware of the tools you use and then understanding the purpose of their creation.

Something I’ve been really getting into lately is typography. Reading through the history of certain typefaces, I have come to appreciate this overlooked profession. It amazes me the thought that goes into creating something that is both a work of art and a medium of information.

Ban Comic Sans

One of the more comical things that I have come across while learning about typography is a movement to ban comic sans. The reason why these designers are so against the font is because a lot of people are using it ineffectively.

Comic Sans MS is a casual font and was originally designed for speech bubbles of animated characters in a failed OS (MS Bob) designed by Microsoft for kids and people generally new to computers. Since the OS failed, it was used instead in Windows 95. At that time, everyone was getting Windows 95 and everyone had access to the font, but they didn’t have an understanding of typography.

In order to prevent the heads of more designers from exploding, I’ll give you a quick lesson in when certain fonts are appropriate:

Here we have 3 fonts: Comic Sans MS, Calibri, and Arial

Comic Sans MS was originally designed as a fun font aimed at children. It has rounded ends and is designed to emulate the writing often found in comic books (hence the name). This font is very casual and is appropriate to create a childish feeling.

Arial is another font from Microsoft, which was developed to compete with Helvetica. Helvetica was originally designed to be a clean and crisp font that did not carry any sentiments with it. It was designed to be neutral and became very popular with companies for its professional tone.

Calibri is a new font to Microsoft and replaces Times New Roman and Arial as the default fonts in MS Office. Calibri has a similar design to Arial, but has an important difference: it has slightly rounded edges. A lot of people liked Comic Sans, but it was just too relaxed for the adult world to use. Calibri takes a serious font like Arial and gives it a hint of playfulness.

The Moral of the Story

I choose to use an example from typography because it acts on two levels: the functional level and the aesthetic level. When you are unaware of the reason your tools were created, then you can only observe the function of your tools. You fail to capture the subtle nuances that makes that particular tool special.

If you take the time to understand these nuances in your tools, be they fonts or phones, you will go from simply being able to do something to being great at something. Technology makes everyone able to perform the deigned function, but not everyone knows the function it is designed for.