Best.

Font.
Ever.
It’s like air.
I mean, there’s no choice.
You have to breath, so you have to use Helvetica.

Erik Spiekermann
maybe not.
Pierre Simon Fournier, Manuel Typographique vol.1, Paris, 1766 Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, Venice, 1494

William Pickering, Title page for “The Book of Common Prayer”, 1549
Lewis Carroll “The Mouse’s Tale” ends a poetic paragraph in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, 1865
Arthur Mackmurdo, Title Page, Gran’s City Churches, London, 1883
William Morris, The Nature of Gothic pp.iv, London, 1892
Aubrey Beardsley, The Studio. vol.1, no.1., London, 1893
Aubrey Beardsley, J’ai Baisé ta Boucha, Iokanaan ( I kissed your mouth, lokannan), London, 1893
Aubrey Beardsley - How Sir Tristram Drank of the Love Drink, 1893
Aubrey Beardsley - Avenue Theatre poster, 1894
Charles Dana Gibson, poster for Scribners’s, 1895 Aubrey Beardsley, The Yellow Book, vol III, oct., London, 1894

William Morris, The Well at the world’s end, 1896 Will Bradley, The Inland Printer poster, 1895
Thomas Heine, Simplicissimus, Zurich, 1897
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Guillot, 1897
J.Herbert McNair, Margaret and Frances McDonalds, The Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 1898
Henri de Toulouse, Lautrec, La Goulue (Louise Weber) at the Moulin Rouge, 1898
Leonetto Cappiello, Chocolate Klaus, 1903 Gustav Klimt, first Secessionist exhibition, 1898

Lucian Bernhard, Priester Matches, 1905 Josef Olbrich, Secession, 1898

 Aubrey Beardsley, 1906 designed at the Roycroft Workshop, A Catalog of Roycroft, New York, 1905

Peter Behrens, AEG, 1907 Leonetto Cappiello, Maurin, Zurich, 1906

Filippo Marinetti, Zang Tumb Tumb, 1914
British Recruiting Poster, Who’s Absent - Is It You?, 1915
Howard Christy, I wish I were a man, 1917
Francis Picabia, Dada Phone no.7, 1920
Frederic W. Goudy, Italian Old Style specimen 1924
Theo van Doesburg, cover for Grundbegriffe der Neue Gestaltenden Kunst, 1925
Herbert Bayer, Universal Typeface, 1925
Roger Broders, Vichy, 1926
Lanston Monotype Corporation Ltd., Gill Sans typeface specimen, 1927
photo by Henrich Hoffman, Hitler, Election poster., 1932
Lester Beall, Rural Electrification Administration, 1937
Jan Tschichold, Dante’s Divine Comedy. Penguin Books, 1947
Paul Rand, The Dada Painters and Poets, 1951
Lettera 22, Typical of Giovanni Pintort’s ad compaigns for Olivetti Typewriters, 1953
Josef-Muller Brockmann, Beethoven, 1955
Paul Rand, book jacket The Second Man, 1956
 George Giusti, cover for Holiday , 1960 Saul-Bass, Vertigo, 1958

Emil Ruder, cover of Typographische Monatsblatter, 1961 Josef Muller-Brockmann, Der Film exhibition poster 1960
 Herb Lubalin, Eros, 1962 Doyle Dane Bernbuch, Think Small, a Volkswagen campaign, 1962

Gunter Rambos, Vielleicht mal eine wenige, 1962 Will Bradley, The Inland Printer poster, 1895
Yusaku Kamekura and Osamu Hayasaki, Tokyo Olympics, 1963 Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam!, 1963

Hans Hillman, Kieler Woche, 1964 Josef Albers, Interaction of Color, 1963
 Saul Bass, The Man with the Golden Arm, 1965 Ken Garland, First Things First, 1964

George Lois, Esquire “Oh my God - we hit a little girl”, 1966 Will Bradley, The Inland Printer poster, 1895
Milton Gasee, Dylan poster, 1966
Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, 1967
Shigeo Fukuda, exhibition poster for Keio department store, 1975 Dan Reisinger, Let My People Go, 1969

Shigeo Fukuda, Victory 1945, 1975 Ralph Coburn, poster for the MIT jazz band, 1972
Saul Bass, The Human Factory, 1979
Herb Lubalin, Families, logo for Reader’s Digest magazine, 1980
Ikko Tanaka, “Nihon Buyo, 1981
Woody Pirtle, poster for Knoll furniture, 1982
Jacqueline S. Casey, Russia, USA, 1987
Paul Rand, Léger , 1988 Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am), 1987

Paul Rand, Léger , 1988

Guerrilha Girls, 1995 Allen Ruppersberg, Preview, 1988

Will Bradley, The Inland Printer poster, 1895

Michael Bierut, Pentagram - Yale School of Architecture, 2000
Derek Birdsall, cover of Common Worship Prayer book, 2000
Anthony Burril, Yes series, 2004
Anthony Burril, Yes series, 2004
FUEL, Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia, 2004 FUEL, Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia, 2004

Anthony Burril, Woodblock poster series, 2004 Will Bradley, The Inland Printer poster, 1895
Anthony Burril, Woodblock poster series, 2004
David Pearson (based on an original by William Morris), On Art and Life by John Ruskin, 2004
Rasmus Koch Studio, Kunsthal Charottenborg, 2007
Beach Packaging, Spaghetti, 2009
Jop van Bennekon and Veronica Ditting, The Gentlewoman (no.1), 2010
Karel Martens and Stephen Serrato, Oase magazine (no.81), 2010
De Designpolite, What Design Can Do!, 2011
Till Gathmann, Hearing by Robert Morris,2012
Joerg Koch, Mike Mieré, 032c magazine (issue 25), 2013
Peter Mendelsund, Ulysses by James Joyce, 2013
“So the story of Comic Sans is not that of a really terrible font, but
rather of a mediocre font, used incorrectly on a massive scale.”
David Kadavy
Listen up.
I know the shit you’ve been saying behind my back. You think I’m stupid. You
think I’m immature. You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font.
Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to
happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

You don’t like that your coworker used me on that note about stealing her
yogurt from the break room fridge? You don’t like that I’m all over your sister-
in-law’s blog? You don’t like that I’m on the sign for that new Thai place? You
think I’m pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don’t all have
seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-
inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can’t all be done in stark Eurotrash
Swiss type. Sorry some people like to have fun. Sorry I’m standing in the way
of your minimalist Bauhaus-esque fascist snoozefest. Maybe sometime you
should take off your black turtleneck, stop compulsively adjusting your Tumblr
theme, and lighten the fuck up for once.

People love me. Why? Because I’m fun. I’m the life of the party. I bring
levity to any situation. Need to soften the blow of a harsh message about
restroom etiquette? SLAM. There I am. Need to spice up the directions to
your graduation party? WHAM. There again. Need to convey your fun-loving,
approachable nature on your business’ website? SMACK. Like daffodils in
motherfucking spring.
When people need to kick back, have fun, and party, I will be there, unlike
your pathetic fonts. While Gotham is at the science fair, I’m banging the
prom queen behind the woodshop. While Avenir is practicing the clarinet, I’m
shredding “Reign In Blood” on my double-necked Stratocaster. While Univers
is refilling his allergy prescriptions, I’m racing my tricked-out, nitrous-laden
Honda Civic against Tokyo gangsters who’ll kill me if I don’t cross the finish
line first. I am a sans serif Superman and my only kryptonite is pretentious
buzzkills like you.

It doesn’t even matter what you think. You know why, jagoff? Cause I’m
famous. I am on every major operating system since Microsoft fucking Bob.
I’m in your signs. I’m in your browsers. I’m in your instant messengers. I’m not
just a font. I am a force of motherfucking nature and I will not rest until every
uptight armchair typographer cock-hat like you is surrounded by my lovable,
comic-book inspired, sans-serif badassery.

Enough of this bullshit. I’m gonna go get hammered with Papyrus.

I’m Comic Sans, Asshole.

Mike Lacher
The Beatles, The White Album, 1968 Garth Brooks, Ropin’ the Wild, 1991 David Coleman, Bad, USA, 1987

Kenny G, Breathless, 1992 Phil Collins, No Jacket Required, 1985 Jason Ciabornr, A Love Supreme, USA, 1965
 Meat Loaf, Bat Out of Hell, 1977 Jewel, Pices of You, 1995 Tibor Kalman, Talking Heads, USA, 1980

Britney Spears, Baby one more time 1999 AC/DC, Back in Black, 1980 Jane Guilick, Lemonheads, USA, 1987
Comic Sans Helvetica

AB C DE F
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“Comic Sans, a typeface that is arguably both the most popular and the
most reviled on the planet. (…) But everyone recognizes Comic Sans”
Tim Dowling
“For every person that doesn’t like Comic Sans there are two that love it”
Vicent Connare
Our deepest gratitude goes to those who responded to our call
for contributions to this part of the book. Let the following
names stand in for all of them:

Catarina Rodrigues, Maria Inês Lopes, Sara Gonçalves