There's nothing comic about Comic Sans: WeTransfer to support a new campaign for Dyslexia Awareness Month

Monday 3 October 2022: ‘There’s Nothing Comic About Dyslexia’ gives Comic Sans, a font that faces prejudice of its own, an unexpected voice to help raise awareness about the need for a more inclusive design mindset.  

The campaign ranging from print, film, out of home, social media posts, and digital, all adopting the unbalanced wonky look of Comic Sans – a cringy sight that is guaranteed to catch the attention of symmetry-loving designers everywhere. Then comes the reason behind the unknown superpower of Comic Sans: it helps people with dyslexia read better. Yes, as it turns out, that same irregularity which makes it so undesirable to designers is what helps people with dyslexia put into focus texts that otherwise feel overwhelmingly chaotic. 

But Comic Sans isn’t the only one facing daily misconceptions. The same goes for how dyslexic people are perceived. When in fact, if you look at some of the world’s most recognised icons, you will find that they are indeed dyslexic minds. The likes of Steve Jobs, Agatha Christie, Albert Einstein, Muhammad Ali, and Pablo Picasso, amongst many more. Today, people with Dyslexia make up 10% of the population. That is 780 million people around the world. Brilliant individuals who with the right access to information can go on to become 40% of self-made millionaires, 10% of MIT students, and 1 in 5 astronauts at NASA. 

“There’s Nothing Comic About Dyslexia” is here to remind designers that there is nothing comic about a font that helps people achieve their incredible potential. WeTransfer is supporting the campaign through its long-standing commitment to give away 30% of ad inventory to causes that matter. Its digital wallpapers and workflow features will help to spread the word amongst its international creative community, comprising more than 87 million users every month, on why beautiful design and being dyslexia-friendly don’t need to be mutually exclusive. 

Finally, the objective of the campaign is not to make designers magically fall in love with Comic Sans. But instead remind them of the major role and responsibility they carry every day to reflect the realities of people everywhere and use their influence to push for a more inclusive design mindset. It’s truly simple, all they have to do is design dyslexia-friendly fonts that they do not find comic. 

“Launching ‘There’s Nothing Comic About Dyslexia’ was a no-brainer for us at Innocean Berlin. Although it is at its core an awareness campaign, it was important for us to deliver a smart take on the topic. And that was to target a very specific group, who can actually create change: designers. Those are the people who hold the power to shape information, and without the right education dyslexic individuals can often lose their creative power and self-confidence. And we can’t afford that. Because these are the brilliant minds who help bring the world forward.”  

– Gabriel Mattar, Chief Creative Officer, Innocean Europe. 

"People with dyslexia can be excluded by some formats of written information and designers are key to creating more accessible styles of text. ‘There’s Nothing Comic About Dyslexia’ creates the opportunity for designers to make a significant social impact, as well as an amazing creative one, for the dyslexic community. We hope that the campaign activates many more individuals, groups and whole sectors to take strides towards being innovative changemakers and we applaud the design community for being bold trailblazers on the journey to a more dyslexia-friendly mindset." 

 – Katie Carmichael, Lead for Creative and Digital, Dyslexia Scotland. 

“As a certified B Corp, WeTransfer integrates environmental and social values into every corner of the business and product. Our ambition is to educate our community about the need for accessibility in online realm and encourage more inclusivity in innovation. By partnering with Dyslexia Scotland and Innocean Berlin, we are calling on designers to rethink the way they approach traditional design principles and create new typefaces that are not only beautiful but also dyslexia-friendly.”

– Lina Ruiz, Head of Social Responsibility, WeTransfer

Notes to editors

All information about the campaign can be found under the campaign website: www.nothingcomicaboutdyslexia.com 

Creative creds

Innocean Berlin Team: 

• CCO: Gabriel Mattar 
• ECD: Ricardo Wolff;
• Head of Art: Maso Heck;
• ACD: Anna Berlin, Marcelo Pignatari
• ACD Digital: Andrés Andrade
• Senior Designer: Julia Sachse
• Senior Copywriter: Noha Fahmy
• Designers: Elise Chastel, Paula Santos
• Senior Creative Strategist: Odile Breffa
• Business Director: Mark Preston
• Producer: Valeria Preisler-Vogel
• PR Consultant: Ellie Botwood
• Media Partners: Havas Media
• Music Production: DaHouse
• Photographer Stills: Ragnar Schmuck

Brokstad Studio 

• Design & Creative Direction: Daniel Brokstad 
• Junior Design: Nika Belskaia