It's not to evoke en emotion, not to convey some abstract message about the corporate structure of the refrigerator...
And yet it does those things, even if that is not the purpose. The reason that Charles Schwab pays attention is that it does affect people, and not just the "tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny minority of people" who are paying attention to how.
I sympathise with your position on not making people feel stupid because they're not typographers, but if the alternative is for everyone to blunder through life oblivious to all but the intended consequences of our actions then I can't endorse that either.
A case in point: the example is not a good one since setting a "please stop eating my yogurt" sign on the refrigerator in Comic Sans is an obvious, and probably effective, way to try to make it seem less threatening.
And yet it does those things, even if that is not the purpose. The reason that Charles Schwab pays attention is that it does affect people, and not just the "tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny minority of people" who are paying attention to how.
I sympathise with your position on not making people feel stupid because they're not typographers, but if the alternative is for everyone to blunder through life oblivious to all but the intended consequences of our actions then I can't endorse that either.
A case in point: the example is not a good one since setting a "please stop eating my yogurt" sign on the refrigerator in Comic Sans is an obvious, and probably effective, way to try to make it seem less threatening.