10 ms·

The Typography of ‘Stranger Things’

216 points by thoughtpalette 10y ago

ultrasandwich 10y ago
The typography and music composition both communicate volumes for this show. The band (SURVIVE) behind most of the compositions is totally stellar too... https://survive.bandcamp.com/ https://survive.bandcamp.com/
dpcx 10y ago
This show was a great watch for me, and I think the typography and music were absolutely key in doing so. The entire feel of the show was a reminder of my youth, and I had a lot of fun with Stranger Things.
- mastazi 10y ago
  The music reminds me of John Carpenter e.g. Escape from New York, Halloween etc.
  - pluma 10y ago
    It's an entire genre from the early 2000s called "synthwave" (or "retrowave"). The band that did the intro is called S U R V I V E, some other noteworthy bands are GUNSHIP and Kavinsky. They're heavily inspired by 80s movies, particularly John Carpenter's.
    - res0nat0r 10y ago
      It sounds like from all the talk I keep hearing about the intro is that people are discovering how much they like retrowave. There are tons of artists on Spotify/YouTube for this genre to check out too which is a good thing.
      - mastazi 10y ago
        @pluma @res0nat0r thanks for that, I did not know that there was an entire genre. I'll definitely look into it!
    - mastazi 10y ago
      Thanks for the references! Nightcall by Kavinsky reminds me of Giorgio Moroder - or, transitively, Daft Punk's references to Giorgio Moroder :-)
bitmapbrother 10y ago
This show was the complete package and one of the most entertaining shows I've watched in some time. It had something for everyone. I can't wait for season 2.
mountaineer22 10y ago
Anybody else notice in the first episode that the automatic dishwasher in the diner had red and blue PEX lines?
- revscat 10y ago
  Can you explain this a bit, please? What are PEX lines?
  - gk1 10y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene
- epimetheus 10y ago
  I'm not sure what you are suggesting? Do you feel it's an anachronism? PEX was invented in the late 1950's and was certainly around in 1983. (though there was one or two things that made me think it was 1984/85, but can't quite remember, so going on the He-Man reference) Edit: Oh, it was the "All The Right Moves" reference, "it's still playing" which suggests it was several months after it released in late October 1983, so I think I pegged it as Spring-ish of 1984... Edit 2: The Clash's "Should I stay or Should I Go" came out in 1982, and was in a flashback which seemed a year or two back, so if this was 1983, it wasn't out of date, but him having it on a mix tape was pretty soon after it's release, not an anachronism necessarily, but borderline. Edit 3: The Bangle's version of Hazy Shade of Winter came out in 1987 (though they played it live as far back as March 1983).
- woliveirajr 10y ago
  Could you explain that PEX reference? Put it in context?
flashman 10y ago
I liked how this show was set in the eighties, but wasn't about them. It could almost have been made thirty years ago. One of my other recent title sequence favourites is 'Halt and Catch Fire'[1], again set in the 80s, in no small part because of the nod towards Apple's advertising fonts[2]. [1]https://vimeo.com/97089384 https://vimeo.com/97089384 [2]http://i.imgur.com/xuCBYgZ.png http://i.imgur.com/xuCBYgZ.png
- cmrx64 10y ago
  When I started watching it I was expecting some cringe-worthy 80s nostalgia panning, but it was very tasteful. The little universe they set up for themselves is taken very seriously.
RIMR 10y ago
I'm glad I'm not the only one who has rewound just to watch the intro again. It's typographic pornography. Stranger Things is one of the best shows I've seen in a while. That 53 seconds is still the best part every time though.
- dahart 10y ago
  Is coining a new portmanteau in order? TYPORNOGRAPHY
  - o_____________o 10y ago
    I like it. Where's the inflection? TYPOR-NOGRAPHY?
  - flycaliguy 10y ago
    This is a complaint I have in most "___-Porn" instances... Why porn? It feels like the wrong context most of the time. Porn is graphic, over stimulating and often without class or artistic direction. Typography is an art. Great typography is subtle, often soothing and harmonious. It's not porn. I get some earth-porn stuff because we in cities live so removed from nature that it's like BAM, Massive Earth In Your Face. I don't know, it just feel gross to call good typography porn. Good typography is like an athlete in motion or a perfectly fitted outfit on a beautiful model. Don't take the complaint personally, I get that it's "a thing".
    - dahart 10y ago
      I dunno, that's language... sometimes vague, sometimes misleading, always keeping you on your toes. ;) I don't take the porn analogy as trying to be a precision term in every possible way, it's not referring to the sometimes lack of class or over stimulation, and it's literally not sexual, so yeah, no perfect analogy here. Porn and it's associated activities is primarily and always self-absorbed, and going after raw physical attraction, those are the things the analogy "Typography porn" is trying to get across. The typography here is crafted so finely that to someone who studies typography, it looks almost masturbatory. Unnecessarily and over the top amounts of craft. An amount of craft and subtlety that as a nerd, you keep to yourself and only talk about or work on with other people who appreciate your weird fetishes. It's porn because it's sexy, it has allure, it's hard to look away, it's attractive and it makes you want more. I think on the whole typography porn is a pretty decent term here. And really, attaching porn to non-sexual things is meant in the spirit of fun, intended to be a teensy bit shocking, aimed for effect, designed for exaggeration, and above all a little silly. Just enjoy it! :)
SwellJoe 10y ago
I watched the show entirely on the strength of the title song; Netflix was playing promos for the show in the weeks leading up to its release, and I loved the music so much. It references classic 80s themes like Terminator, as well as horror scores from the era, but is still modern and interesting. It isn't merely nostalgic, just like the intro video sequence isn't merely nostalgic. They use modern techniques to manipulate classic imagery and sounds to come up with a thing that is both nostalgic and novel. It's awesome. The show isn't bad, either, but the intro really is a perfect thing. It gives me that weird creepy feeling I got from Stephen King movies on VHS when I was a kid. I feel like the composers and the folks behind the intro should be getting higher billing in the credits. It's so integral to the success of the show.
- mmastrac 10y ago
  The intro sews it up nicely. The word I like to describe the feeling of watching that title sequence is "frission".
- epimetheus 10y ago
  I also loved the intro, but I think that Netflix spends a lot of time/money on them. Daredevil is a good example of a striking intro theme as well. I feel slightly bad after the first 3-4 episodes, when I skip the intro though.
- cmrx64 10y ago
  I agree a lot! I was pretty skeptical of the show, but the intro sequence really got me to sit down and give it a chance. It's really polished.
- arielweisberg 10y ago
  Wow I had a bad reaction to the show. I feel like half of it needed to head to the cutting room floor. Episodes are 48 minutes long, but very little interesting happens. A lot of it is worn out tropes involving child and "teenage" actors that don't make it any more interesting to watch. The photography is pretty uninspired and makes very little interesting use of composition, color, perspective, DOF. Sure you get a bone once in a while but most of it is pretty boring. There is a passable few episodes in there somewhere waiting to be ruthlessly edited out. But really instead of subverting expectations in it's storytelling it hews very closely to the expectations that come with the tropes and genre. That puts a hard ceiling on how good it's ever going to be given that I'm not tuning in for the acting, sets, or photography.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
cmrx64 10y ago
One other tiny detail I noticed was that the text (and not just the red glowing title) flickered slightly as if you were watching a VHS.
- robert_tweed 10y ago
  It goes deeper. Look at some lights in the main programme: the way they have glowing halos. Especially the red lights in the opening sequence of ep1, or the bike headlights when they are facing the camera. It's probably CGI for cost reasons, but it's been deliberately done "badly" so it looks like traditional effects.
knucklesandwich 10y ago
Low content comment: I love that someone wrote this, because I was literally wondering if an article with this title would show up on HN. Really cool typography (also a fantastic show). I know almost nil about the subject, but the title font also reminds me a lot of Friz Quadrata [1], the font famously used by Black Flag, which gives me another kind of 80s nostalgia. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friz_Quadrata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friz_Quadrata
- akx 10y ago
  Friz Quadrata is arguably more famously used as the interface font for World of Warcraft.
jack_jennings 10y ago
Additional reading from the type archivists at Fonts in Use: http://fontsinuse.com/uses/13992/stranger-things http://fontsinuse.com/uses/13992/stranger-things A few nice quotes about the design direction and a pair of comments at the end with illustrations of the source material with the original cut of Benguait.
carlob 10y ago
There was a wonderful post [1] on r/italy (unfortunately in Italian), by a guy that works in cinema that explained all this and more. He explains not only the motion blur and the film grain, but also things like how color shift when white fades out (it's about different color sensitivity curves in real film). [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/italy/comments/4te9hl/stranger_things_una_sequenza_dei_titoli_che/ https://www.reddit.com/r/italy/comments/4te9hl/stranger_thin...?
- graedus 10y ago
  > also things like how color shift when white fades out (it's about different color sensitivity curves in real film) This is my favorite detail - very subtle and authentic looking. I was hoping someone could explain it, thanks for the pointer.
edem 10y ago
The score reminds me of Mass Effect and makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
last_mohican123 10y ago
If you liked the intro, I would recommend OST of "only God forgives"
abalone 10y ago
If you love 80s kinetic typography porn check out this music video Justice put out a few years ago: https://vimeo.com/30371091 https://vimeo.com/30371091
- macspoofing 10y ago
  Wow. Really well done.
TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
Typographically, see also the Lucasfilm logo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhO_YjAJq_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhO_YjAJq_w I'm not really getting the excitement. I remember this look from the 80s and it's... a look I remember from the 80s. The music is half Carpenter and half late 1970s Tangerine Dream with more oscillator detuning than usual - e.g. the score TD did for a William Friedkin movie called Sorcerer.
bbctol 10y ago
ITC Avant Garde has made such a comeback in recent years I almost forget it's a 70s font.
drewg123 10y ago
I LOVED the show, but hated the intro because it broke into the binge watching flow. Eg, because it was not at the beginning and/or just after "previous episode" scenes meant that it didn't get auto-skipped when binge watching. So it interrupted my viewing experience every hour or so. Yeah, I know, first world problems.
overcast 10y ago
I watched the entire Stranger Things season all in one sitting. Sadly, the opening title and musical score was the best part of it. I was completely pumped when I heard a show based in 80's nostalgia was coming to Netflix. Unfortunately that was about all it offered. It ticked off every 80's cliche; Stephen King fonts, Spielbergesque characters and settings, tired cop given a second chance to do something meaningful, single mom raising boys away from a deadbeat dad, group of nerdy young kids solving issues on their BMX bikes, alien hiding in a shed (ET), and a secret megacorp coverup. The story was completely uninspiring, that even some exceptional acting couldn't rescue. The actress playing Eleven was fantastic! But Winona Ryder was WAS over dramatic.
ommunist 10y ago
The lettering of this title is indeed thoroughly thought through. By the way many Chinese movies these day present very nice eye-pleasers from a typographycal perspective. Its a pity the Western eye lacks criteria for admiration of those.

216 points by thoughtpalette 10y ago

The typography and music composition both communicate volumes for this show. The band (SURVIVE) behind most of the compositions is totally stellar too... https://survive.bandcamp.com/ https://survive.bandcamp.com/

dpcx 10y ago

This show was a great watch for me, and I think the typography and music were absolutely key in doing so. The entire feel of the show was a reminder of my youth, and I had a lot of fun with Stranger Things.

mastazi 10y ago
The music reminds me of John Carpenter e.g. Escape from New York, Halloween etc.
- pluma 10y ago
  It's an entire genre from the early 2000s called "synthwave" (or "retrowave"). The band that did the intro is called S U R V I V E, some other noteworthy bands are GUNSHIP and Kavinsky. They're heavily inspired by 80s movies, particularly John Carpenter's.
  - res0nat0r 10y ago
    It sounds like from all the talk I keep hearing about the intro is that people are discovering how much they like retrowave. There are tons of artists on Spotify/YouTube for this genre to check out too which is a good thing.
    - mastazi 10y ago
      @pluma @res0nat0r thanks for that, I did not know that there was an entire genre. I'll definitely look into it!
  - mastazi 10y ago
    Thanks for the references! Nightcall by Kavinsky reminds me of Giorgio Moroder - or, transitively, Daft Punk's references to Giorgio Moroder :-)

bitmapbrother 10y ago

This show was the complete package and one of the most entertaining shows I've watched in some time. It had something for everyone. I can't wait for season 2.

mountaineer22 10y ago

Anybody else notice in the first episode that the automatic dishwasher in the diner had red and blue PEX lines?

revscat 10y ago
Can you explain this a bit, please? What are PEX lines?
- gk1 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene
epimetheus 10y ago
I'm not sure what you are suggesting? Do you feel it's an anachronism? PEX was invented in the late 1950's and was certainly around in 1983. (though there was one or two things that made me think it was 1984/85, but can't quite remember, so going on the He-Man reference) Edit: Oh, it was the "All The Right Moves" reference, "it's still playing" which suggests it was several months after it released in late October 1983, so I think I pegged it as Spring-ish of 1984... Edit 2: The Clash's "Should I stay or Should I Go" came out in 1982, and was in a flashback which seemed a year or two back, so if this was 1983, it wasn't out of date, but him having it on a mix tape was pretty soon after it's release, not an anachronism necessarily, but borderline. Edit 3: The Bangle's version of Hazy Shade of Winter came out in 1987 (though they played it live as far back as March 1983).
woliveirajr 10y ago
Could you explain that PEX reference? Put it in context?

flashman 10y ago

I liked how this show was set in the eighties, but wasn't about them. It could almost have been made thirty years ago. One of my other recent title sequence favourites is 'Halt and Catch Fire'[1], again set in the 80s, in no small part because of the nod towards Apple's advertising fonts[2]. [1]https://vimeo.com/97089384 https://vimeo.com/97089384 [2]http://i.imgur.com/xuCBYgZ.png http://i.imgur.com/xuCBYgZ.png

cmrx64 10y ago
When I started watching it I was expecting some cringe-worthy 80s nostalgia panning, but it was very tasteful. The little universe they set up for themselves is taken very seriously.

RIMR 10y ago

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has rewound just to watch the intro again. It's typographic pornography. Stranger Things is one of the best shows I've seen in a while. That 53 seconds is still the best part every time though.

dahart 10y ago
Is coining a new portmanteau in order? TYPORNOGRAPHY
- o_____________o 10y ago
  I like it. Where's the inflection? TYPOR-NOGRAPHY?
- flycaliguy 10y ago
  This is a complaint I have in most "___-Porn" instances... Why porn? It feels like the wrong context most of the time. Porn is graphic, over stimulating and often without class or artistic direction. Typography is an art. Great typography is subtle, often soothing and harmonious. It's not porn. I get some earth-porn stuff because we in cities live so removed from nature that it's like BAM, Massive Earth In Your Face. I don't know, it just feel gross to call good typography porn. Good typography is like an athlete in motion or a perfectly fitted outfit on a beautiful model. Don't take the complaint personally, I get that it's "a thing".
  - dahart 10y ago
    I dunno, that's language... sometimes vague, sometimes misleading, always keeping you on your toes. ;) I don't take the porn analogy as trying to be a precision term in every possible way, it's not referring to the sometimes lack of class or over stimulation, and it's literally not sexual, so yeah, no perfect analogy here. Porn and it's associated activities is primarily and always self-absorbed, and going after raw physical attraction, those are the things the analogy "Typography porn" is trying to get across. The typography here is crafted so finely that to someone who studies typography, it looks almost masturbatory. Unnecessarily and over the top amounts of craft. An amount of craft and subtlety that as a nerd, you keep to yourself and only talk about or work on with other people who appreciate your weird fetishes. It's porn because it's sexy, it has allure, it's hard to look away, it's attractive and it makes you want more. I think on the whole typography porn is a pretty decent term here. And really, attaching porn to non-sexual things is meant in the spirit of fun, intended to be a teensy bit shocking, aimed for effect, designed for exaggeration, and above all a little silly. Just enjoy it! :)

SwellJoe 10y ago

I watched the show entirely on the strength of the title song; Netflix was playing promos for the show in the weeks leading up to its release, and I loved the music so much. It references classic 80s themes like Terminator, as well as horror scores from the era, but is still modern and interesting. It isn't merely nostalgic, just like the intro video sequence isn't merely nostalgic. They use modern techniques to manipulate classic imagery and sounds to come up with a thing that is both nostalgic and novel. It's awesome. The show isn't bad, either, but the intro really is a perfect thing. It gives me that weird creepy feeling I got from Stephen King movies on VHS when I was a kid. I feel like the composers and the folks behind the intro should be getting higher billing in the credits. It's so integral to the success of the show.

mmastrac 10y ago
The intro sews it up nicely. The word I like to describe the feeling of watching that title sequence is "frission".
epimetheus 10y ago
I also loved the intro, but I think that Netflix spends a lot of time/money on them. Daredevil is a good example of a striking intro theme as well. I feel slightly bad after the first 3-4 episodes, when I skip the intro though.
cmrx64 10y ago
I agree a lot! I was pretty skeptical of the show, but the intro sequence really got me to sit down and give it a chance. It's really polished.
arielweisberg 10y ago
Wow I had a bad reaction to the show. I feel like half of it needed to head to the cutting room floor. Episodes are 48 minutes long, but very little interesting happens. A lot of it is worn out tropes involving child and "teenage" actors that don't make it any more interesting to watch. The photography is pretty uninspired and makes very little interesting use of composition, color, perspective, DOF. Sure you get a bone once in a while but most of it is pretty boring. There is a passable few episodes in there somewhere waiting to be ruthlessly edited out. But really instead of subverting expectations in it's storytelling it hews very closely to the expectations that come with the tropes and genre. That puts a hard ceiling on how good it's ever going to be given that I'm not tuning in for the acting, sets, or photography.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

cmrx64 10y ago

One other tiny detail I noticed was that the text (and not just the red glowing title) flickered slightly as if you were watching a VHS.

robert_tweed 10y ago
It goes deeper. Look at some lights in the main programme: the way they have glowing halos. Especially the red lights in the opening sequence of ep1, or the bike headlights when they are facing the camera. It's probably CGI for cost reasons, but it's been deliberately done "badly" so it looks like traditional effects.

knucklesandwich 10y ago

Low content comment: I love that someone wrote this, because I was literally wondering if an article with this title would show up on HN. Really cool typography (also a fantastic show). I know almost nil about the subject, but the title font also reminds me a lot of Friz Quadrata [1], the font famously used by Black Flag, which gives me another kind of 80s nostalgia. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friz_Quadrata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friz_Quadrata

akx 10y ago
Friz Quadrata is arguably more famously used as the interface font for World of Warcraft.

jack_jennings 10y ago

Additional reading from the type archivists at Fonts in Use: http://fontsinuse.com/uses/13992/stranger-things http://fontsinuse.com/uses/13992/stranger-things A few nice quotes about the design direction and a pair of comments at the end with illustrations of the source material with the original cut of Benguait.

carlob 10y ago

There was a wonderful post [1] on r/italy (unfortunately in Italian), by a guy that works in cinema that explained all this and more. He explains not only the motion blur and the film grain, but also things like how color shift when white fades out (it's about different color sensitivity curves in real film). [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/italy/comments/4te9hl/stranger_things_una_sequenza_dei_titoli_che/ https://www.reddit.com/r/italy/comments/4te9hl/stranger_thin...?

graedus 10y ago
> also things like how color shift when white fades out (it's about different color sensitivity curves in real film) This is my favorite detail - very subtle and authentic looking. I was hoping someone could explain it, thanks for the pointer.

edem 10y ago

The score reminds me of Mass Effect and makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

last_mohican123 10y ago

If you liked the intro, I would recommend OST of "only God forgives"

abalone 10y ago

If you love 80s kinetic typography porn check out this music video Justice put out a few years ago: https://vimeo.com/30371091 https://vimeo.com/30371091

macspoofing 10y ago
Wow. Really well done.

TheOtherHobbes 10y ago

Typographically, see also the Lucasfilm logo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhO_YjAJq_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhO_YjAJq_w I'm not really getting the excitement. I remember this look from the 80s and it's... a look I remember from the 80s. The music is half Carpenter and half late 1970s Tangerine Dream with more oscillator detuning than usual - e.g. the score TD did for a William Friedkin movie called Sorcerer.

bbctol 10y ago

ITC Avant Garde has made such a comeback in recent years I almost forget it's a 70s font.

drewg123 10y ago

I LOVED the show, but hated the intro because it broke into the binge watching flow. Eg, because it was not at the beginning and/or just after "previous episode" scenes meant that it didn't get auto-skipped when binge watching. So it interrupted my viewing experience every hour or so. Yeah, I know, first world problems.

overcast 10y ago

I watched the entire Stranger Things season all in one sitting. Sadly, the opening title and musical score was the best part of it. I was completely pumped when I heard a show based in 80's nostalgia was coming to Netflix. Unfortunately that was about all it offered. It ticked off every 80's cliche; Stephen King fonts, Spielbergesque characters and settings, tired cop given a second chance to do something meaningful, single mom raising boys away from a deadbeat dad, group of nerdy young kids solving issues on their BMX bikes, alien hiding in a shed (ET), and a secret megacorp coverup. The story was completely uninspiring, that even some exceptional acting couldn't rescue. The actress playing Eleven was fantastic! But Winona Ryder was WAS over dramatic.

ommunist 10y ago

The lettering of this title is indeed thoroughly thought through. By the way many Chinese movies these day present very nice eye-pleasers from a typographycal perspective. Its a pity the Western eye lacks criteria for admiration of those.