This WTF Font is Everywhere

I have been getting Anne set up with an Etsy site and lots of materials and gear to make a variety of crafting projects.  What's weird is that when we go into Michael's now, or pretty much ANY PLACE, there are little signs with sayings on every wall, and so many of them have a horrible, unreadable, eyesore crap cursive font.  Here are a few we found on a short walk this afternoon...

 
 clog kijjej?

 Shevlavligarvis?  Shengnigan8?  Oh, right, that little "g" is an "a" ... got it now.

How is THIS the default crafty font right now?  Is it supposed to be stylish?  It looks like incoherent scribbles at first until we squint and strain and figure THAT bump is supposed to be a U or an N and THAT blob is probably an A, and then like a Rorschach test some kind of word comes into focus, but hell, it's a process.  This font is the single most widespread fail I have seen in 30+ years of working with graphics. It makes no sense that so many people are using it, so many products are splatting it up on store shelves, in a world where cursive writing is being increasingly forgotten and marginalized.

I'm sure it's not all one font causing the headaches.  But it's definitely some of those default fonts that come up on the Cricut machine software, and apparently tons of crafters have known about these Cricut machines for many years now.  We finally got one -- they're great machines: versatile and empowering to home-based item makers.  Are they the reason this font has been blasted into the mainstream?

I have no idea.  This splat font is EVERYWHERE.  It is making us crazy.  I can't imagine anyone is enjoying that look, or trying to visually untangle that word spaghetti.

Here are a few from the Cricut design space:

Clearly there are a few fonts here.  The overall issue is the same.  A good typography rule for script fonts is to use them as highlights in a phrase, but not to use them for the whole phrase.  Gotta love "keejs caln & raft ON."  Or is that "f" supposed to be a tiny telephone?

Anyway, one of the new goals of our crafting projects, wherever fonts are involved, is to make items that people can actually read comfortably.

If you need some messy script fonts, just Google it.

As if that's not weird enough, here is an illegible font generator.


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