3 ms·

Alien was made in the 70s and at the time and was set in some time in the distant future. What fonts were we using back then? Will we be using the same fonts hu

by dfxm12 5y ago

Alien was made in the 70s and at the time and was set in some time in the distant future. What fonts were we using back then? Will we be using the same fonts hundreds of years in the future? What fonts were the people in the setting using? On top of that, part of the draw of sci-fi is to imagine a new, different world. That includes different fonts.

codazoda 5y ago
One thing that comes to mind is freeway sign fonts in the US. They have recently started to change and I certainly don't like the new ones as well as the old ones. But, maybe that's just my human emotions avoiding change.
- mark-r 5y ago
  Don't worry, they'll be changing back. https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/4/10919686/clearview-highway-font-fhwa-highway-gothic https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/4/10919686/clearview-highway...
TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
We weren't using fonts at all. Graphic design was done with stick-on lettering, not with computers. The type catalogs of the day offered a fairly typical selection of the styles used. https://www.flickr.com/photos/27088565@N07/2582809036/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/27088565@N07/2582809036/in/pho... But most people paid designers instead of trying to DIY it, because place and paste was a difficult job. I discovered type in the late 70s through these catalogs and I was instantly fascinated by the way the shapes of the letter designs somehow managed to imply mood, context, and meaning. I still don't understand it, and I'm not sure anyone does. Professional designers understand it intuitively, but there's no definitive manual that describes how you get from a shape to an association. Even with Eurostile - it's been used in science fiction for so long it wins by association. But it's only there because it works so well. Blocky, clean, functional, sans serif only gets you so far when you're trying to understand why. It's hard to imagine doing the signage on a spaceship with Monotype Corsiva or Caslon. Of course you could... but not without generating severe cognitive dissonance.
mark-r 5y ago
Designing a new font is a hard job, not something you just slap together for a movie. Even big corporations who want a custom font will generally hire a designer who bases it on something they've done before.

by dfxm12 5y ago

codazoda 5y ago

One thing that comes to mind is freeway sign fonts in the US. They have recently started to change and I certainly don't like the new ones as well as the old ones. But, maybe that's just my human emotions avoiding change.

mark-r 5y ago
Don't worry, they'll be changing back. https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/4/10919686/clearview-highway-font-fhwa-highway-gothic https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/4/10919686/clearview-highway...

TheOtherHobbes 5y ago

We weren't using fonts at all. Graphic design was done with stick-on lettering, not with computers. The type catalogs of the day offered a fairly typical selection of the styles used. https://www.flickr.com/photos/27088565@N07/2582809036/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/27088565@N07/2582809036/in/pho... But most people paid designers instead of trying to DIY it, because place and paste was a difficult job. I discovered type in the late 70s through these catalogs and I was instantly fascinated by the way the shapes of the letter designs somehow managed to imply mood, context, and meaning. I still don't understand it, and I'm not sure anyone does. Professional designers understand it intuitively, but there's no definitive manual that describes how you get from a shape to an association. Even with Eurostile - it's been used in science fiction for so long it wins by association. But it's only there because it works so well. Blocky, clean, functional, sans serif only gets you so far when you're trying to understand why. It's hard to imagine doing the signage on a spaceship with Monotype Corsiva or Caslon. Of course you could... but not without generating severe cognitive dissonance.

mark-r 5y ago

Designing a new font is a hard job, not something you just slap together for a movie. Even big corporations who want a custom font will generally hire a designer who bases it on something they've done before.