Comic Sans
Released in 1994 by Vincent Connare, Comic Sans was made to imitate the easily readable and non-intimidating lettering in comic books. Despite It's hatred among designers, influencing designs like the ones below, I believe that the font has a purpose within design.
In Simon Garfield's book "Just My Type" it is explain that the original purpose of the font was for a programme called "Microsoft Bob" which was intended to be user friendly to as a wide of an audience as possible. The the smooth lines and rounded ends of the letterforms give the font a childish quality which wouldn't be intimidating to people who hadn't used a computer previously and would feel friendly and kind-hearted. The font previously used for "Microsoft Bob" was Times New Roman which was far too traditional and professional, and didn't suit the childish illustrations that accompanied the software. Comic Sans was perfect for such a formal medium, whereas It wouldn't suit such a heavy body of text aimed at a diferent audience, such as The Bible, Lord Of the Rings or Government documents.
Hevetica
The original Helvetica was created in Switzerland by Max Meidinger and Eduard Hoffmann at "The Hass Type Foundry". it was originally created to have no outstanding characteristics or give off any impressions. This neutrality was paramount, and based off the idea that type itself should give no meaning. There have been multiple variations of the type including: Helvetica Bold, Light, Black, Textbook, Compressed. Helvetica was seen as a sleek, modern look that companies were looking for to remake their identities after wars within Europe. The design of Helvetica makes a design look quite corporate but formal enough to be used in retail and less traditional businesses on packaging advertisements and logos. This is one of the reasons it is often used in transit system signs. Below are a few examples I found of Helvetica's use.
Times New Roman
Times New Roman gets its name for "The Times" of London, the British newspaper, which the font was commissioned for in 1929. The Times hired Stanley Morison of the font foundry,"Monotype" to create a new text font . Morison led the project and was supervised by Victor Lardent, an advertising artist for The Times, who drew the letterforms.
Times New Roman has characteristics that suit The Times newspaper. It is sophisticated and timeless, and gives the reader the feeling that they are reading something intellectual. The audience wouldn't be as keen on The Times newspaper if it was all written in comic sans.
Typeface for Molly
I used Adobe Font Finder to try and find an existing font that had similar characteristics to the one I plan to create to represent Molly. Adobe Font Finder can help you narrow down your search by categorising the fonts into diferent styles and characteristics.
I searched "Humorous, Informal, Sans serif" as I believe that they are styles that represent the characteristics of Molly.
These are the 4 fonts that came up:
I also stubbled upo another font by the name "Tekton" which I think also has the same look that I intend on going for.
I got Molly to write down the alphabet again to see if the style of writing had changed since I last asked her to, although it seemed very similar. It has a rushed, friendly look to it. I plan to create a quite simplistic sans serif that has an upbeat feel about it
