Vincent Connare

Vincent Connare (born 26 September 1960)[1][2] is an American type designer and former Microsoft employee. Among his creations are the Comic Sans font and the Trebuchet MS font. Besides text typefaces, he finalized and hinted the font Marlett which has been used for scalable User Interface icons in Microsoft Windows since 1995 and created portions of the font Webdings that was first shipped with Internet Explorer.

Vincent Connare
Connare in 2012
Born (1960-09-26) 26 September 1960
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Reading, New York Institute of Technology, Milford High School (Massachusetts)
OccupationTypeface designer, photographer
Known forComic Sans, Trebuchet MS, Webdings, Marlett, Microsoft
Websitewww.connare.com

Education

Connare studied at Milford High School in Milford, Massachusetts and at the New York Institute of Technology where he received a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and Photography. He later earned a master's degree in Type Design at the University of Reading.[1][3]

Career

Microsoft

After graduating from the New York Institute of Technology, Connare began working as a photographer for the Worcester Telegram in Massachusetts and helped establish a Cherokee-language newspaper. While working for Microsoft, Connare contributed to documents on font production as well as the fonts Trebuchet MS, Webdings, and most notably Comic Sans. Connare worked towards his master's degree at the University of Reading in England.

Dalton Maag

While working at Dalton Maag, a typeface design company located in Brixton London, Connare created the Magpie font and designed the Ministry of Sound logo.[4]

Comic Sans
Main article: Comic Sans

Creating Comic Sans

When Microsoft launched Windows 1995, it featured a new program, Microsoft Bob, that included a cartoon that would talk with speech bubbles. Connare felt that the cartoons in Microsoft Bob needed a less formal looking font; something more suitable for kids.[5] Inspired by DC and Marvel comic books, Connare created Comic Sans in 1994 by using a mouse and cursor to draw intentionally sloppy letters. Microsoft Bob inevitably faded into obscurity, but Comic Sans secured its legacy after quickly getting adopted by the Walt Disney Company.

Reception

Soon after Connare created Comic Sans the font was adopted by many notable companies including Apple, BMW, and Burberry. Despite the font's commercial success, it is controversial and its detractors are passionate. The hatred goes so far that a group of Canadians campaigned to ban the font in 2005. Connare has not been deterred by the negative backlash to his creation; in fact, at the Fourth Annual Boring Conference Connare said he found the contempt for his work to be "mildly amusing".[6]

Comic Sans has become very widely used in applications ranging from newspapers titles and store signs, to the Spanish world cup trophy and the Pope's photo album at the Vatican.[7] Connare has stated that he is very proud of the font, offering different rationales. Arguing that "Comic Sans does what it was commissioned to do, it is loved by kids, mums and many dads. So it did its job very well. It matched the brief!" He has also referred to it as "the best joke I've ever told." [8]

Comic Sans is a particularly popular font; in fact, Simon Garfield's new book on fonts, “Just My Type”, devotes the first chapter to Comic Sans. Comic Sans is also listed in the book “How to Design a Typeface” by the Design Museum in London, which was reviewed in newspapers across London. Comic Sans has also featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.[9]

See also

References
  1. Macmillan, Neil (2006). An A-Z of type designers. Page 68 - Vincent Connare b.1960 USA. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300111517. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
  2. "Vincent Connare". MyFonts. Bitstream. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
  3. "Vincent Connare". Designers. Typophile. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
  4. "Vincent Connare | Biography, Designs and Facts". Famous Graphic Designers. Retrieved 2017-10-26.
  5. Fletcher, Dan (2010-05-27). "The 50 Worst Inventions". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2017-10-28.
  6. Dowling, Tim (2014-06-04). "The Comic Sans creator explains how he made the world's most-hated font". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-10-26.
  7. "Why we're loving: Vincent Connare, type designer". Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  8. "People who don't like Comic Sans don't know anything about design". Dezeen. 2014-11-27. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  9. "The Story Behind Comic Sans - Fonts.com - Fonts.com". Fonts.com. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
Connare explains how he came to create 'the world's favourite font' in 2009.
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