We've spotted lots of Google Easter eggs over the years. Hidden animations, fun widgets and even playable games have surprised us in the search results for particular queries. Sometimes they're quickly discovered when they're designed around trending search topics, but some less obvious gems can pass under the radar, continuing to surprise unsuspecting users.
We just discovered a gem on a topic that's close to our own hearts. Here at Creative Bloq, we consider ourselves something of an authority on design fails. We've written about enough of them over the years, from disastrous rebrands to AI adverts.
So imagine our delight when we discovered that typing the term 'design fails' into Google delivers results presented in one of the world's most controversial typefaces.
I say one of the most controversial fonts, because these days we would much rather have Comic Sans back in place of that generic AI font that's cropping up on flyers everywhere.
Putting Google's joke aside, the typeface has its place, and not every use of Comic Sans is a design fail. Indeed, many designers have come out in defence of Comic Sans over the years.
It was created in 1994 by Microsoft in-house designer Vincent Connare to solve a specific design problem. He needed a suitable font for the dog in the Microsoft Bob interface – Times New Roman just didn't suit the pup's playfulness, so Vincent created a comic book-inspired font to match the cartoony design.
Mimicking informal, handwritten speech in cartoons, it was perfect for injecting levity into casual communication pieces for schools, community spaces, standing out from stuffy serifs and dull sans serifs while also being very clear and readable thanks to its wide spacing.
The problem came when people started using it in inappropriate applications, including official notices, and its infamy only grew with the 'graphic design is my passion' meme.
