Does the Back To The Future logo really count? Raiders of the Lost Ark as a very similar style but does not evoke "future". Yes, there are subtle differences. My point is, if you divorced them from the connection to their content I think it would be hard to point to one as "future" and the other as "not future"
At the 1996 ATypI meeting in Den Haag, one of the speakers coined the term “sterotypography” to refer to certain cliches that get used in type usage. Another case of this is the use of Neuland and Neuland Inline to represent Africa, and of course the assortment of faux Chinese fonts that were ubiquitous on Chinese takeout menus in the 80s and 90s (and probably still are, but are there still takeout menus in the era of Grubhub?).
Walk into a super market, every product is giving you non textual clues as to what it is, and why it's different from the identical thing right next to it.
You notice the odd ones out because you have to stop and work out what the thing is.
Edit. An example is spreadable 'butter', in the UK and Europe you can't say it's butter, it doesn't say it's butter, but I bet most people have never noticed that because it's in butter type packaging with the design language you'd expect.
Great read otherwise, I know the author mentions their book, I do wonder if he covers the history of how these fonts came to be so standard... for future stuff
As someone who has read the book, it does go through the history and inspiration of modern sci-fi typeset. Great coffee table book. Mainly expands on the articles on the website with more details and graphics.
He just... highlighted Avatar. He clicked the dropdown menu, and then he randomly selected Papyrus. Like a...Like a thoughtless child just wandering by a garden, just yanking leaves along the way.
Given the name you'd think it would be an alternative for Microgramma, but no, no - just look at the internal corners on letters like N, W, and V. In Microgramma they'd be flattened off but in Michroma and Eurostile they come to a point.
I dunno, it’s kinda futuristic, but it’s missing the faux 3d effect where it appears to have warped up close to you and left a trail of light behind it, like the Star Trek example of the end. Nothing says “future” like fake 3d effects.
FWIW, ST:TNG only used the faux 3D effect for the season that aired on the year of Star Trek’s 25th anniversary. Subsequent seasons reverted to the 2d text.
I kind of wish they had used something other than Eurostyle for the starting font in their example since it is already a font that has become associated with sci-fi.
Still a great article though! More of this please!
I love just how dated some of these futuristic fonts now seem, having grown up with most of them
Yes brings me back to the 80s demo scene…
Does the Back To The Future logo really count? Raiders of the Lost Ark as a very similar style but does not evoke "future". Yes, there are subtle differences. My point is, if you divorced them from the connection to their content I think it would be hard to point to one as "future" and the other as "not future"
The future always has context.
In 2016 to make text look futuristic it would require using — (m dash) a lot, and maybe …
At the 1996 ATypI meeting in Den Haag, one of the speakers coined the term “sterotypography” to refer to certain cliches that get used in type usage. Another case of this is the use of Neuland and Neuland Inline to represent Africa, and of course the assortment of faux Chinese fonts that were ubiquitous on Chinese takeout menus in the 80s and 90s (and probably still are, but are there still takeout menus in the era of Grubhub?).
We use this sort of short hand all the time.
There's "ye olde" in a gothic font.
Walk into a super market, every product is giving you non textual clues as to what it is, and why it's different from the identical thing right next to it.
You notice the odd ones out because you have to stop and work out what the thing is.
Edit. An example is spreadable 'butter', in the UK and Europe you can't say it's butter, it doesn't say it's butter, but I bet most people have never noticed that because it's in butter type packaging with the design language you'd expect.
Needs a (2016)
> Posted on February 18, 2016 by Dave Addey
Great read otherwise, I know the author mentions their book, I do wonder if he covers the history of how these fonts came to be so standard... for future stuff
As someone who has read the book, it does go through the history and inspiration of modern sci-fi typeset. Great coffee table book. Mainly expands on the articles on the website with more details and graphics.
Might have to snag it, and like you say, keep it laying around as a coffee table book somewhere. :)
"Somewhere"
And then there is the papyrus font for avatar…
He just... highlighted Avatar. He clicked the dropdown menu, and then he randomly selected Papyrus. Like a...Like a thoughtless child just wandering by a garden, just yanking leaves along the way.
It's tribal, yet futuristic.
They can't keep getting away with it!
For those who don't get it https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ
Avatar 6 and 7 planned (there's a joke there somewhere).
Papyrus on the big screen 'til mid-to-late 2030s.
I know what you did!
At least it wasn't Comic Papyrus...?
Somewhere, an LLM trained on this and can now produce cliche future fonts.
Is the Trajan fad over yet?[1]
[1] https://letterboxd.com/sethpaul/list/trajan-the-typeface-tha...
Funny. I just googled this site 2 hours ago for a font inspiration for a makerspace logo.
Michroma is a Google Font alternative for Eurostile.
Given the name you'd think it would be an alternative for Microgramma, but no, no - just look at the internal corners on letters like N, W, and V. In Microgramma they'd be flattened off but in Michroma and Eurostile they come to a point.
Typeset in the future was awesome, too bad it stopped updating
Almost exactly the playbook I followed (unwittingly) when designing a logotype for my Playdate game recently:
https://play.date/games/hyper-vector/
I dunno, it’s kinda futuristic, but it’s missing the faux 3d effect where it appears to have warped up close to you and left a trail of light behind it, like the Star Trek example of the end. Nothing says “future” like fake 3d effects.
FWIW, ST:TNG only used the faux 3D effect for the season that aired on the year of Star Trek’s 25th anniversary. Subsequent seasons reverted to the 2d text.
A genuinely fun post.
I agree! A refreshing interlude to the cybersecurity postmortems and corporate layoff news.
Missing The Terminator. Also applies to Wipeout, a game with some of my favorite logo and design work.
The Designers Republic! https://www.thedesignersrepublic.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Designers_Republic
I like how the first like made the entire mobile browser go yellow, even the buttons. How did they do that?
> the devastating Kern Wars of 2067
Do we know who won those wars?
Had the other side won, we would know them as the Kem Wars.
To be honest I've had a lot of difficulty telling the two sides apart
Revenge is a typeface best served with Serifs
Keeeeerrrrrrrrrrrnnn!!
From the result there, looks like each faction got to keep some terrain.
I kind of wish they had used something other than Eurostyle for the starting font in their example since it is already a font that has become associated with sci-fi.
Still a great article though! More of this please!
I think the author is aware: https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/11/29/fontspots-eurostil...
Nice! Thanks!
My first thought was "that's just the star trek font".
this is exactly the ESPN logo as well
Ironically (I’m sure with intent). This looks super 80s.
Very tongue-in-cheek
Futura Free
Who knew back then that we'd go from less design to no design at all produced by machines.
This should have a (2016)
Is this a joke..?
only if you don't get it