Putting the sans in Comic Sans

Having spent many years despising both the use and users of the travesty of a typeface that is Comic Sans, I am pleased to report that the cause to ban it forever has been taken up. Since its creation in 1995, the typeface Comic Sans has enjoyed immense popularity among numerous digital type users including librarians, human resource managers, Powerpoint presenters, and Disney advertisement designers. The typeface has recently become so popular in fact that it has attracted the attention of several important typographic institutions, most notably the Foundation of National Typographers. A recent study by the FoNT foundation reveals some remarkable trends for the fledgling face. These projections are based on a scientific survey of long-term type usage trends and include a standard margin of error. The report finds that Comic Sans usage has steadily increased since 1995 at a geometric rate and is well on its way to becoming the most universally used typeface surpassing even Helvetica and Times by approximately 2018. Even more astonishing is the typographic event horizon predicted for the year 2027. The FoNT foundation has determined that according to these trends the only typeface anyone will use by the year 2030 will indeed be Comic Sans. STOP the march of the evil Comic Sans. Visit the Ban Comic Sans . website and register your support!

Big Stories Blog

We have recently launched a dedicated blog to support our Big Stories campaign, and to provide insight into great campaigns and news in the not-for-profit/third sector. Lavish has strong not-for-profit, brand, marketing and direct response experience. We have worked with leading charities, including Crisis, Public Concern at Work and the Carbon Disclosure Project, as well as some smaller ones throughout our careers. Big Stories is our dedicated not-for-profit campaign, showcasing our specialist offer and experienced team. If you want to find out more about Big Stories it has it's own website . The site is currently undergoing a design and content refresh, so it will change slightly over the coming weeks, with new content being added all the time. Lavish Big Stories blog

Nonsense

Slugs have 4 noses. Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue. In 1386, a pig in France was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child No centipede was ever found with 100 hundred legs. Octopus have 2 legs and 6 arms. Ergophobia is a fear of work. Our eyes are always the same size from birth. that’s why some babies look like frogs. The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. The flea can jump 350 times its body length A cockroach will live nine days without it’s head, before it starves to death. Butterflies taste with their feet. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than it’s brain. Starfish don’t have brains. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider? Right-handed people, on average, live nine years longer than left-handed people Polar bears are left-handed. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older. In ancient Egypt, Priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath. Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day. Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. Cartoon from Savage Chickens Nonsense from Karlology

We're moving

Due to expansion and our need for more space we are moving offices. Not too far, just down the road to Old Street. The new studio is going to be named the 'Lavish Lounge' so now it will exist online and in reality! More details next week.

Changing online behaviour to cope with credit crunch

There's some interesting research on how the credit crunch is affecting UK internet behaviour. The findings highlight three key areas in which UK online behaviour has started to adapt. 1. Consumers are searching for cheaper prices online No surprise there then that UK consumers are increasingly using price comparison and other discount websites to find the cheapest deals online. Following a 2 year decrease in traffic levels, UK Internet visits to retail price comparison sites increased by 20% between July 2007 and 2008. Similarly, searches for the summer sales have trebled this year compared with last, while consumers searching for discount vouchers have led to a 130% increase in traffic to specialist voucher websites. 2. Property searches have fallen, but traffic to House and Garden retailers has reached a new high The credit crunch has hit online estate agents hard: in August 2007, websites in Hitwise's Business and Finance - Property category accounted for 0.85% of all UK Internet visits, but last month (August 2008) this figure fell to 0.55%. Falling demand for houses is mirrored by consumer search behaviour, with UK Internet searches for 'houses for sale' down 53.1% between August 2007 and August 2008. At the same time, the share of UK Internet visits to websites in Hitwise's Shopping and Classifieds - House and Garden category increased from 0.49% in August 2007 to 0.59% in August 2008, overtaking the Business and Finance - Property category on the way. One of the factors behind the success of House and Garden retailers online has been the increase in online DIY queries, as UK consumers look to improve their accommodation on a budget. UK Internet searches for the top 10 DIY-related 'how to' queries have increased by 25% over the last 12 months. In August 2008 the top DIY search was 'how to plaster', followed by 'how to lay decking' and 'how to wallpaper'. 3. Consumers are shunning ethical consumerism in favour of energy efficiency UK Internet searches for ethical consumer products such as fair trade and organic have not increased over the last 12 months, but searches for energy efficiency terms, such as 'loft insulation', 'underfloor heating' have more than doubled over the last 12 months. Similarly, UK Internet traffic to the websites of gas and electricity providers has also doubled over the same period, as consumers hunt to find the best deal. Find out more about this research Net Imperative Source: Hitwise