on second thought, the idea of design policing could be a little patronising. again, i think the trick would lie in the implementation.

i like the idea, however its implementation will have to be thought of. either it can become a feature of the learning resource, or be a different, more fun section of the website.

These are absolutely the best things I’ve ever seen for the grammar-obsessed. For those that edit the work of others, you must download them immediately and put them to use.  And then thank The Design Police.

Today I cam across this web page http://www.design-police.org.

How true these printouts are, I shall be using them for both suppliers and the students I teach.

Design mistakes must be punished!!

Remember Design Police are Operating in this Area

I’m slowly transitioning this blog over to VARGUCCI.COM – no worries, I’ll be keeping them both up simultaneously AND with unique content for the time being. Be sure to bookmark the new url!

Petit cadeau de la journée : un kit d’autocollants à imprimer à la maison ou au bureau.

Vos stagiaires collègues vont a-do-rer !

Bravo au studio Design Police

Comic Sans is the leading cause of cancer and car accidents.

Well not really.
But it may possibly be pretty high up on the list of pain infliction and the unsightly.

In 1995 Microsoft released the font Comic Sans originally designed for comic book style talk bubbles containing informational help text. Very wrong minimal. Fine, we can deal with just that.

Since that time, the typeface has been used in countless contexts from signage to essays to business information. This prevalent misuse of printed typefaces threatens to erode the very foundations on which centuries of typographic history have been built.
It’s now a designer’s nightmare. I mean, I get that font selection is a matter of personal preference but many people may disagree with this… It’s a matter of knowledge, experience and awareness.

Or something like that.
It’s just so obviously hideous and out of place in as much as 99.4% of situations. Actually make that 99.8%.

I know that they say – all fonts are like children, you have to love them no matter how ugly, but something went terribly wrong with this baby.
Today though, I was asked (yes seriously queried) what was wrong with Comic Sans… I mean, many people hate Comic Sans and it has pretty much become a fearful following, I paused for a second wondering if people even really got it, or just felt the need to hate it.

No one really asks why… you just do or you don’t. Black and white.
But hurry; if you don’t say you hate it people will assume you love it.

It doesn’t end there. Like the tone of a spoken voice, the characteristics of a typeface convey meaning. The design of the typeface is, in itself, its voice. Often this voice speaks louder than the actual font itself.

The misuse of Comic Sans is frequent and frequently unjustified. For a font that was designed for a comic book style of information – it conveys a childish naivety. An uncultured, unwanted flashback from the 90’s. Is this really what you want to put forward in a resume? Is it really what you want your clients to gather about your company?
For some reason so many people feel the need to use Comic Sans. They say “cool, comic sans is all I use.” But we hear: “I have absolutely no design sense, and hence I use this font almost all the time.”

Horrible.

There have been petitions against it, stickers that circulate the web and endless blogs about the nature and overuse of it. Cult following? Possibly. But it is good to know I am not alone in my dislike of the font.

Here’s what I’m looking at this week:

I love to look behind the scenes at peoples work in sketchbook form

A really nice, simple, bold Willie letterpress poster. The others are great, too

Designers are starting to visually weigh in on the ‘08 Olympics location

Would love to distribute these appropriately!

Stefan G. Bucher will make you fall in love with monsters!

Let’s here what your looking at. Leave a note in the comments. See past See Hear Speak links here.

On www.design-police.org you will find the solution to the disgust that comes to you every time you see a logo done in comic sans, exaggerated kerning and more . After download print the file possibly on adhesive paper.
Then when you see something disgusting put the adhesive. A great idea to share!

Su www.design-police.org trovi la soluzione al disgusto che ti prende ogni volta che vedi un logo fatto in comic sans, un kerning esagerato ed altro. Devi solo scaricare il file e stamparlo, possibilmente su carta adesiva.
Poi quando vedi qualcosa di disgustoso puoi attaccare l’adesivo giusto. Una grande idea …diffondetela

I can’t get enough of this cat’s style…

Although, as the name suggests, Design Police is primarily geared toward designers, their pre-printed tabs useful for pointing out errors and peeves may come in handy for editorial types as well. For example:

Comic Sans got you down lately? You’re not the only one. Design Police even has a couple of tabs for calling out illegal use of that font. You can also check out Ban Comic Sans for additional support.

Hat tip to the cinetrix and Moondog.

I know I know, Design Police has been doing the blog rounds, you’ve seen it, I’m sorry ok! Funny headline though eh?

But it is just such a cool concept. I think I’d be too lazy to cut them out though. I’d get someone else to do that. This also goes well with an earlier post, *cough* Concept Interactive…

The Design Police offers a humorous way to shed light on design issues that people would usually overlook or else not really care much about.

Great badging tactics to create stickers notifying people of design flaws.

Slecht grafisch werk moet streng gestraft worden, maar tot nu greep er niemand in. Maar alles gaat anders worden, met de Design Police. Van zodra ik stickerpapier heb, ga ik als een wildeman aan het plakken.

Meer weten? Meer lezen dan.

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Originally uploaded by distillerymedia

Agency Tart points us over to the Design Police for this handy downloadable sticker set to entertain you during the day and on drunken nights.  I think outdoor is the best medium for these so bundle up East Coasters.

The Design Police are keeping our eyes safe from ugly visuals.

Unter dem Motto “Bring bad design to justice” bietet die Design Police ihr “Visual Enforcement Kit” zum Download an. Schöne Aktion – die Sticker gehören auf so manche augenkrebserzeugende Website oder Drucksache. Leider.

via nerdcore

An edited version of this article also appeared on Josh Spear

The visually conscious (or sometimes visually obsessive) among us see it everywhere: bad colour combos, heinous spacing, over-sized logos, and – gasp – excessive use of Helvetica!

Now the design-minded have the means to take control… if taking control means slapping a sticker on a poster and running back to the Mac like a little girl. Design Police’s downloadable Visual Enforcement Kit gives you a series of offense-marking stickers to gleefully place on bad kerning and other layout tragedies whenever you see fit. These five comprehensive pages of design-geek glory cover the gamut of offenses from “Do not use clip art!“ to “turn off the CAPS LOCK”. My personal fave is “Hire a copywriter”. Amen to that.

If this is making any sense to you so far you’re probably a design geek – maybe even that particular sub-species… the font geek. If you’re curious as to your own design/font geek status then here’s an easy litmus test – if you find the “Comic Sans is illegal” sticker amusing, then congratulations. Don’t worry – I’m a font geek too. Despite the general mutterings I sometimes I hear from those around me about my incessant use of Arial Rounded MT Bold, I don’t care. It’s my fave:

I often flirt with the idea of cheating on it with Helvetica, but in the end I always come back to my baby. Long live Arial Rounded MT Bold!