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How to make your text look futuristic (2016)

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?).

3 hours agodhosek

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"

an hour agosocalgal2

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.

32 minutes agoefitz

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

9 hours agogiancarlostoro

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.

8 hours agoJK-Swizzle

Might have to snag it, and like you say, keep it laying around as a coffee table book somewhere. :)

8 hours agogiancarlostoro

"Somewhere"

5 hours agobit_savager

And then there is the papyrus font for avatar…

7 hours agogenghisjahn

It's tribal, yet futuristic.

3 hours agojayd16

They can't keep getting away with it!

7 hours agomoron4hire

Avatar 6 and 7 planned (there's a joke there somewhere).

Papyrus on the big screen 'til mid-to-late 2030s.

7 hours agonntwozz

At least it wasn't Comic Papyrus...?

6 hours agoIzkata

Typeset in the future was awesome, too bad it stopped updating

8 hours agoriffraff

Missing The Terminator. Also applies to Wipeout, a game with some of my favorite logo and design work.

2 hours agojonhohle

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.

5 hours agobhaak
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3 hours ago

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!

7 hours agoharimau777

> the devastating Kern Wars of 2067

Do we know who won those wars?

3 hours agobaigy

To be honest I've had a lot of difficulty telling the two sides apart

2 hours agomikestorrent

From the result there, looks like each faction got to keep some terrain.

2 hours agomarcosdumay

A genuinely fun post.

8 hours agoxiaoyu2006

I agree! A refreshing interlude to the cybersecurity postmortems and corporate layoff news.

6 hours agoctippett

this is exactly the ESPN logo as well

2 hours agobigethan

Ironically (I’m sure with intent). This looks super 80s.

5 hours agososomoxie

My first thought was "that's just the star trek font".

5 hours agobooleandilemma

Very tongue-in-cheek

5 hours agomproud

Futura Free

7 hours agoholotherapper

This should have a (2016)

9 hours agoQuercusMax

    We want it to look like the text is stretching towards 2020
Sigh, if only :|

Who knew back then that we'd go from less design to no design at all produced by machines.

6 hours agokeyle
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8 hours ago

Is this a joke..?

8 hours agotimebeforeland

only if you don't get it