These are the spurs referred to in the title – a reference to the spikes worn by horse riders and cowboys on their boots. Maybe not.» Definitely. Related story: «People who don’t like Comic Sans don’t know anything about design»Comic Spurs is based on Comic Sans, the comic book-style typeface designers love to hate. How could something so weathered have been founded last Tuesday?»
«So the challenge was to authentically reproduce this style with the world’s most ironic font.»
Comic Spurs can be downloaded from the specially created website, and is available to use for free. «They don’t understand that in design you have a brief.»
«The timing couldn’t have been better because to us it kind of signified the very end of the Comic Sans joke,» said Kleinman and Byrnes-Enoch. Extruded signage for an audiology clinic? Cue Comic Sans. «Comic Sans used to be funny to designers, but it’s been corrupted by ‘The Man’.»
The designers said they created the typeface as a response to a growing trend for typography and branding «with a vintage, Mid-Western American aesthetic». «You could say that one of the fundamental differences between art and design is a brief. «James H Goldberg provides the perfect opportunity to reflect that absurdity, with the same techniques we use to create sincerity on a daily basis.»
Past projects have included Creative Promises, a range of 3D-printed promise rings – jewellery used to demonstrate commitment to a partner before or instead of marriage – designed to show the «special bond» between art director and copywriter. Last month, creator Vincent Connare – who once said the typeface was «the best joke I ever told» – defended the typeface in an exclusive interview with Dezeen. Talking cartoon dog? «As creative professionals we usually work on more sincere projects and have both at times seen the absurdity in what we do, and how seriously people can take it,» they said. «From that, we realised one of the most enjoyable aspects was reading people’s interpretations of our work, good or bad, it’s fascinating,» they said. It is now described by the VA Museum as «one of the most popular and despised typefaces in existence». «If a middle-class office worker with a neck tattoo looks like a badass, maybe Comic Sans with spurs can too,» they said. And the fact that it’s probably the most overused joke in the design world only adds fuel to the fire.»
Kleinman and Byrnes-Enoch said that they hoped Comic Spurs would provoke a strong reaction but also show how design can be used to «manipulate people’s perception». «So we wanted to make something that people would react to. It is part of a wider collaboration under the name James H Goldberg, through which the designers work on «absurd» projects that poke fun at the design world. Each letter has added barbs, some running through the middle and some sticking out from only one side. «I think people who don’t like Comic Sans don’t know anything about design,» Connare told Dezeen.
