By now, most consumers are so familiar with fonts that they have associations with whatever typeface your business uses. For example, the bold, blocky "Impact" font is constantly seen accompanying internet memes, and as such looks out of place in promotional material. Helvetica is more commonly seen on street signs than on a storefront, although it's been seen in different uses.
There's one font that has often been ridiculed by graphic designers: Comic Sans. However, Fast Company recently looked at a way this style is being brought back into the spotlight, albeit ironically. According to them, a new satirical font called "Comic Spurs" was launched by designers Michael Kleinman and Declan Byrnes-Enoch to satirize the perceived ugliness of the font, and the way companies try to appear "natural" with fonts that seem deliberately messy and handwritten.
"It was intended as a joke about how fake everything seems now, with words like 'artisanal' and 'bespoke' thrown around like they mean nothing at all," Kleinman said. "Comic Spurs is the font for that fakeness."
Fake or not, the infamy of Comic Sans seems to be drawing attention in other ways. The Atlantic recently covered an art project called the "Sincerity Machine" that is essentially a typewriter that prints text in Comic Sans. The creator of this piece, Jesse England, said that he believes this font is unfairly maligned, even though he himself is "not particularly enamored" with it.
This is just one possible font to think about as your brand creates original sign pieces and displays. The POP signs you use, for example, could help others see an old font in a different light. It's worth experimenting to see if you can develop a new look for a well-known style.