There's no shortage of sites and companies that try to draw you in with
slickl looking graphics and marketing. Think of the casinos on the Las Vegas
strip or Google's much discussed recent logo change or even the sign we put in
our front lobby to try to make it look like we're a real company to some
degree. And the reasons for this go beyond the speculative research has
indicated that fonts can actually affect our physical perceptions. One experiment
involved serving identical jelly beans to two different groups labeled with the
words eat me. However, eat me was printed in a rounded font for one group
and a jagged font for the other group. And it turned out that the people in the
jagged font group perceived the jelly beans as quite a bit more sour than the
other group due to the subconscious suggestion from the way the words were
written. So, the reason that organizations all don't just use one
plain readable font for everything like Helvetica or Ariel is because different
fonts have a real power to make us feel certain ways and conjure up emotions
that might make us more likely to spend our money if we're at a store or to feel
a bit calmer if we're at the dentist or something. But how can mere letters on a
page or a sign kick us right in the fields? A lot of this has to do with
perceptions of fonts that we develop over the years through a process called
psychological priming, similar to how people form stereotypes and first
impressions. For example, sand serif fonts have become much more common in
modern life due to their widespread use on computer screens. A sans serif font,
by the way, is anything that doesn't have seraps, which are those little
lines at the edges of letters that make them easier to read on a printed page.
But since monitors were actually lower resolution in terms of dots per inch
than books or magazines for a long time,
many websites and computer graphic designers used sand serif fonts as it
was thought seraps would actually make text on lowres screens harder to read.
Nowadays, with high-res HD displays, this was less of an issue. But Sanser's
perception as modern and clean persisted, leading to it becoming a
popular font style for startups and online businesses that want to appear
current and forwardthinking. Sanser's simplicity has also made it a go-to for
places that want to appear stable and professional. In fact, many people
associate the sans serif font Helvetica with the IRS in the states since they
use it heavily on their tax forms. Of course, on the flip side, its minimalism
and popularity as a modern font back in the 1960s might explain why hipsters
have taken to it so much. And speaking of hipsters, many fonts have fallen out
of favor due to their overuse in certain applications. Comic Sands, for instance,
was originally supposed to be just a fun font reminiscent of old comic books.
Now, it draws tons of eye due to its association with tacky flyers for child-
ccentric activities. Impact doesn't quite annoy people the way comic sands
does, but with advice animal memes being as prevalent as they are, many places
have started to shy away from using it due to the strong association with Bad
Luck Brian and Insanity Wolf, which can
make things seem less trustworthy. And while super tacky fonts like Papyrus
don't usually have a lot of staying power due to things like restaurants
massively overusing it, they can still
be effective for building a cohesive
brand identity. A commonly cited example
for this is the famous Disney logo, which people recognize immediately
despite the D and the Y not really looking how they're supposed to.
Harderto- read fonts are even intentionally used by some restaurants
and stores to suggest that something on sale is higher quality, and it took a
lot of effort to make. And as marketing strategies and tastes continue to
evolve, what kind of fonts strike us as fresh, trit, or even offensive are sure
to change as well. But if that's too much to keep up with, you can always
play it safe and use the affforementioned Helvetica, which was
named after the Latin name for Switzerland because, well, you guessed
it, it's neutrality. So, just like Switzerland, it stayed out of wars.
Maybe using Helvetica can help you avoid conflict as well, unless someone who
reads it had a traumatic experience with a bar of toolbar. With the linda.com
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today. Thanks for watching, guys. If you liked it, like it. And maybe there's a
font for the like symbol. I don't know. If you disliked it and you love Comic
Sands, feel free to do that as well. Get subscribed so you can see the future of
all of our videos. And if you want to direct that future in some way, suggest
a video for us down below. I'd love some suggestions for like the brain science
psychology side of things. I'm having a lot of fun with these videos. Also, check out Channel Super Fun. They have a
fun font. Pretty sure it's not comic sands, though, so you're safe.