Episode 82: Constitutional Sans

The New York Times recently posted the contents of a confidential letter from John Dowd , a lawyer for the President, to special counsel Robert Mueller.

What concerns us here at The Observatory is that — according to Amy Fiscus, an editor who has seen the actual letter, Dowd’s letterhead was in the childlike and often ridiculed font Comic Sans.

Jessica, who wrote The Global Curse of Comic Sans for Design Observer back in 2006, says:

There’s something about the idea of a Trump White House document of importance being rendered in a font that most of us find appropriate for kindergarten. That in a sense is the resonance of this administration: it’s silly, it’s not serious, it’s comic.

And then Michael makes tuba sounds.

Also mentioned this week:

• Know Your Meme on history of Comic Sans
• Dissection podcast with Bobby C. Martin, Jr.
• Mike Lacher, McSweeneys I’m Comic Sans, Asshole
• Vlad Savov, the Verge, Google’s Selfish Ledger Is an Unsettling Vision of Silicon Valley Social Engineering
• Felix Salmon, Wired, The Creepy Rise of Real Companies Spawning Fictional Design
• Neri Oxman’s MIT Mediated Matter group
• Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything
• Bruce Sterling, Slate, Design Fiction
• Let the Sun Shine In
• Crazy Walls

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