28 comments

  • nedt19 minutes ago
    But Star Wars isn't from the future. Does that mean there is a time loop in fonts?
  • socalgal29 hours ago
    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"
  • dhosek11 hours ago
    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?).
    • benj1114 hours ago
      We use this sort of short hand all the time.<p>There&#x27;s &quot;ye olde&quot; in a gothic font.<p>Walk into a super market, every product is giving you non textual clues as to what it is, and why it&#x27;s different from the identical thing right next to it.<p>You notice the odd ones out because you have to stop and work out what the thing is.<p>Edit. An example is spreadable &#x27;butter&#x27;, in the UK and Europe you can&#x27;t say it&#x27;s butter, it doesn&#x27;t say it&#x27;s butter, but I bet most people have never noticed that because it&#x27;s in butter type packaging with the design language you&#x27;d expect.
  • bhouston2 hours ago
    Some of this is based on the 1966 Star Trek logo:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;logos.fandom.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;logos.fandom.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series</a>
    • Archelaos30 minutes ago
      Raumpatrouille Orion also from 1966 used a similar font style:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;de.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Raumpatrouille_%E2%80%93_Die_phantastischen_Abenteuer_des_Raumschiffes_Orion#&#x2F;media&#x2F;Datei:Raumpatrouille.svg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;de.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Raumpatrouille_%E2%80%93_Die_p...</a><p>I reckon this style originated much earlier from the fonts used on the covers of science fiction books and magazines.
  • giancarlostoro16 hours ago
    Needs a (2016)<p>&gt; Posted on February 18, 2016 by Dave Addey<p>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
    • JK-Swizzle16 hours ago
      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.
      • giancarlostoro16 hours ago
        Might have to snag it, and like you say, keep it laying around as a coffee table book somewhere. :)
  • genghisjahn15 hours ago
    And then there is the papyrus font for avatar…
    • arionmiles4 hours ago
      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.
    • jayd1610 hours ago
      It&#x27;s tribal, yet futuristic.
    • Izkata13 hours ago
      At least it wasn&#x27;t Comic Papyrus...?
    • moron4hire15 hours ago
      They can&#x27;t keep getting away with it!
      • RobotToaster7 hours ago
        For those who don&#x27;t get it <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;jVhlJNJopOQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;jVhlJNJopOQ</a>
      • nntwozz14 hours ago
        Avatar 6 and 7 planned (there&#x27;s a joke there somewhere).<p>Papyrus on the big screen &#x27;til mid-to-late 2030s.
    • genxy7 hours ago
      I know what you did!
  • swiftcoder2 hours ago
    I love just how dated some of these futuristic fonts now seem, having grown up with most of them
    • ako2 hours ago
      Yes brings me back to the 80s demo scene…
      • alfiedotwtf2 hours ago
        Not only that, this article had the same feel of an old ANSI scene graffiti tutorial (I think it was made by the ACiD team
  • Animats16 hours ago
    Somewhere, an LLM trained on this and can now produce cliche future fonts.<p>Is the Trajan fad over yet?[1]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;letterboxd.com&#x2F;sethpaul&#x2F;list&#x2F;trajan-the-typeface-that-took-over-movie&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;letterboxd.com&#x2F;sethpaul&#x2F;list&#x2F;trajan-the-typeface-tha...</a>
  • bhaak12 hours ago
    Funny. I just googled this site 2 hours ago for a font inspiration for a makerspace logo.<p>Michroma is a Google Font alternative for Eurostile.
    • ErroneousBosh4 hours ago
      Given the name you&#x27;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&#x27;d be flattened off but in Michroma and Eurostile they come to a point.
  • riffraff16 hours ago
    Typeset in the future was awesome, too bad it stopped updating
  • p0w3n3d2 hours ago
    In 2016 to make text look futuristic it would require using — (m dash) a lot, and maybe …
  • efitz8 hours ago
    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.
    • mrexroad4 hours ago
      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.
  • fredley3 hours ago
    Almost exactly the playbook I followed (unwittingly) when designing a logotype for my Playdate game recently:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.date&#x2F;games&#x2F;hyper-vector&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.date&#x2F;games&#x2F;hyper-vector&#x2F;</a>
  • xiaoyu200616 hours ago
    A genuinely fun post.
    • ctippett14 hours ago
      I agree! A refreshing interlude to the cybersecurity postmortems and corporate layoff news.
  • baigy11 hours ago
    &gt; the devastating Kern Wars of 2067<p>Do we know who won those wars?
    • jamonserrano8 hours ago
      Had the other side won, we would know them as the Kem Wars.
    • mikestorrent10 hours ago
      To be honest I&#x27;ve had a lot of difficulty telling the two sides apart
    • mrexroad4 hours ago
      Revenge is a typeface best served with Serifs<p>Keeeeerrrrrrrrrrrnnn!!
    • marcosdumay9 hours ago
      From the result there, looks like each faction got to keep some terrain.
  • harimau77715 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.<p>Still a great article though! More of this please!
    • jameshart13 hours ago
      I think the author is aware: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;typesetinthefuture.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;11&#x2F;29&#x2F;fontspots-eurostile&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;typesetinthefuture.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;11&#x2F;29&#x2F;fontspots-eurostil...</a>
  • jonhohle9 hours ago
    Missing The Terminator. Also applies to Wipeout, a game with some of my favorite logo and design work.
    • doctorhandshake4 hours ago
      The Designers Republic! <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thedesignersrepublic.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thedesignersrepublic.com&#x2F;</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;The_Designers_Republic" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;The_Designers_Republic</a>
      • sgt4 hours ago
        I like how the first like made the entire mobile browser go yellow, even the buttons. How did they do that?
  • booleandilemma13 hours ago
    My first thought was &quot;that&#x27;s just the star trek font&quot;.
  • bigethan10 hours ago
    this is exactly the ESPN logo as well
  • sosomoxie13 hours ago
    Ironically (I’m sure with intent). This looks super 80s.
  • mproud12 hours ago
    Very tongue-in-cheek
  • jottinger1 hour ago
    OMG I died laughing at this. Then I came back to life. And died again.
  • holotherapper14 hours ago
    Futura Free
  • keyle14 hours ago
    <p><pre><code> We want it to look like the text is stretching towards 2020 </code></pre> Sigh, if only :|<p>Who knew back then that we&#x27;d go from less design to no design at all produced by machines.
  • QuercusMax16 hours ago
    This should have a (2016)
  • timebeforeland16 hours ago
    Is this a joke..?
    • dylan60415 hours ago
      only if you don&#x27;t get it