Artist Shantell Martin re-imagines Comic Sans font

UK – British artist Shantell Martin has created new font Shantell Sans, based on her signature felt-tip handwriting. Martin is known for her large-scale black and white drawings and collaborations with Tiffany & Co, New York City Ballet and Adidas.

To create the typeface, Martin used her favourite medium-sized felt-tip marker, a Staedtler Lumocolour, to write several sentences containing every letter in the alphabet. Type designer Stephen Nixon of Arrow Type jumped in to trace Martin’s writing and tweaked its heights, widths and spacing to make it consistent. Launched at the beginning of March, Shantell Sans has been downloaded 3m times on Google Fonts.

As a self-proclaimed ‘proud dyslexic’, she frequently features block text in all caps in her work as she finds it easier to read. Shantell Sans resembles the famous 2000s Comic Sans font. The 2023 redesign has sparked conversation about inclusive design and early tech aesthetic nostalgia.