5 most hated fonts (and why we secretly love them)

They’re the Twilight/Carly Rae Jepsen/Candy Crush Saga of the font world. When asked, you’ll profess your undying hatred for them, but in secret, when you think no one is looking, you’ll use them. And you’ll like it. These are the top five most hated fonts but we secretly loved them…

Papyrus
Designer Chris Costello set out with good intentions when he designed this font in 1983. He handcrafted it with a calligraphy pen over a six month period in a bid to create a modern day version of a 2000 year old font. Unfortunately, this font seems to have been overused so much in its early days that there are blogs dedicated to calling out ‘users’.  Many people thought they were safe as this font drifted into obscurity, until the Avatar movie poster gave it a shot of popularity, for which it was really quite thankful.

Lobster
Lobster is so cool, it’s annoying. If you’re going to be hated for anything, let it be that. Romenig Silva designed this script to be “fully loaded with hundreds of ligatures and alternates”, making the chunky, cool, retro-style font a hipster’s dream. Probably another reason people don’t want to admit to using it.

Helvetica
Like the cute blonde cheerleader at school, Helvetica is hated for its popularity.  It was the creation of designer Max Miedinger in 1957 and has fast become one of the most loved, most used fonts in the design world due to its simplicity, legibility and versatility. Another reason it seems to come in as one of the most hated is because it resembles its ugly sister, Arial, too much.

Souvenir
This font reeks of the 70s so bad that we can almost hear the Bee Gees playing every time we look at it.  More than just a little retro, Souvenir was actually created in 1914 by Morris Fuller Benton, making it a veritable geezer next to faux retro fonts like Lobster. So why do we secretly love it? This font is so dated that it’s come full circle and is actually *gulp* kinda cool.

Gill Sans
It’s been called the Helvetica of England, possibly because heritage establishments like the BBC and Penguin Books use it. Despite its clean appearance, Gill Sans is actually riddled with inconsistencies that divide typographical enthusiasts everywhere. Eric Gill created his font between 1928 and 1930 and seems to have done such a good job, that like Helvetica, it has annoyed people. Seems like there’s just no winning here.

Do you think we missed a few off the list? Are there any that shouldn’t be on there? Add your recommendations to the comments box below or get in touch on Facebook and Twitter to get the conversation going!

If you want to know more about fonts, check our article 8 Utterly Terrible Font Puns!

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