Reverse sentimental language

In some writing circles, exclamation marks are only barely acceptable. Use them carefully, they say, as if you've only a handful at your disposal.

The problem with the exclamation mark is that it's hysterical, terribly sentimental and very final. But while it may be true that such dramatic punctuation is a no-no in literature, this is not always the case in life.

Now the exclamation colon has come to the rescue. Designed by Studio Julia, this invention is a finite, powerful exclamation mark spliced with its nemesis, the evenly spaced colon.
The exclamation colon allows for the possibility that a climactic exclamation may need elucidation.

Studio Julia have also parodied italics with "untalics", the de-emphasised written word. Where italics can feel pompous, the calli-ungraphic "untalics" font, by being in on the joke, avoids being self-important. And on a simpler level it's playing with the eye, taking a familiar old typeface, straightening up the slanted letters, and making it fresh.

Comic Sans - known in design circles as the beginner's type, used for church groups and hubcap salesmen - is returned to its non-existent neutral form, Sans (the font was originally designed to be a comic accompaniment for the Microsoft Dog). The irregular, unpredictable, unintimidating letterforms are redesigned to look more sombre and are appropriately named Serious Sans.