Who wore it better? Comic Sans and the GOP and DNC websites
October 22nd, 2010 by Jim Kidwell
‘Tis the season for all things political, and in doing so, we’ve had a good time playing around with some of the most prominent political sites using the new Web Preview feature of Suitcase Fusion 3.
What better sites than to play with than the main sites of the Republican (www.gop.com) and Democratic (www.democrats.org) parties. Since both parties tended to set their text in images on the main pages (naughty, naughty – that’s so bad for their search engine optimization), I chose the “blog” sub-pages as more text-heavy examples.
We replaced the standard fonts in use on the sites (like Folgers!) with Comic Sans. So, now to the throwdown! Who wore it better? Click on the images for a full-size version.
The Democrats?
Or the Republicans?
Both sites have a large amount of interface elements still set as images, but the Comic Sans sure shines through!
Tell me your thoughts. Who wears it better?
Ha! Nice throwdown.
I’d say it looks slightly less ridiculous on the GOP site.
Although the irony is not lost on me a, a career typographic & brand ID designer. Your selecting the hideously lame Comic Sans (!?) as a thematic “replacement font” to test the web & blog designs is grounds alone for having your AIGA credentials revoked (smile)! I do get it. If a layout is truly good, it may sustain the typographic “stress-test” of replacing all its fonts with all Comic Sans. Even if one limits this exercise to squinty web-previews only, versus large print media and/or big-screen high def clarity! Please, sirs & madams, this would go beyond layout testing and verge on violating the Geneva Convention. The Comic Sans replacement is the typographic equivalent of waterboarding.
Gag, choke, I give in! The Democrat’s layouts win, not because of my political affiliations, but the Democratic Party web pages and blog pages look cleaner, fresher. That spiffy “circle-D” icon helps. Lending each header a personality. in focus group after focus group, I have watched consumers consistently select crests, dingbats, and more recently the cleaner evolution of that often referred to as an “icon”. Consumers adore icons. Even ones as simple as cattle-brands. They are an indicia, a monogram that exudes a family, a company, some larger entity behind the icon. Lending that dual holy grail of brand ID: AUTHENTICITY and PERSONALITY.
Perhaps my Swiss-grid roots are showing, but the Republican Part pages looked more hodgepodge, perhaps reflecting their current state of philosophical identity crisis.