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How to make your text look futuristic (2016) (typesetinthefuture.com)
swiftcoder 13 minutes ago [-]
I love just how dated some of these futuristic fonts now seem, having grown up with most of them
ako 9 minutes ago [-]
Yes brings me back to the 80s demo scene…
socalgal2 7 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"
BoredPositron 3 hours ago [-]
The future always has context.
p0w3n3d 26 minutes ago [-]
In 2016 to make text look futuristic it would require using — (m dash) a lot, and maybe …
dhosek 9 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?).
benj111 2 hours ago [-]
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.

giancarlostoro 14 hours ago [-]
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

JK-Swizzle 14 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.
giancarlostoro 14 hours ago [-]
Might have to snag it, and like you say, keep it laying around as a coffee table book somewhere. :)
bit_savager 11 hours ago [-]
"Somewhere"
genghisjahn 13 hours ago [-]
And then there is the papyrus font for avatar…
arionmiles 2 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.
jayd16 8 hours ago [-]
It's tribal, yet futuristic.
moron4hire 13 hours ago [-]
They can't keep getting away with it!
RobotToaster 5 hours ago [-]
For those who don't get it https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ
nntwozz 12 hours ago [-]
Avatar 6 and 7 planned (there's a joke there somewhere).

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

genxy 5 hours ago [-]
I know what you did!
Izkata 11 hours ago [-]
At least it wasn't Comic Papyrus...?
Animats 14 hours ago [-]
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...

bhaak 10 hours ago [-]
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.

ErroneousBosh 2 hours ago [-]
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.
riffraff 14 hours ago [-]
Typeset in the future was awesome, too bad it stopped updating
fredley 1 hours ago [-]
Almost exactly the playbook I followed (unwittingly) when designing a logotype for my Playdate game recently:

https://play.date/games/hyper-vector/

efitz 6 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.
mrexroad 2 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.
xiaoyu2006 14 hours ago [-]
A genuinely fun post.
ctippett 12 hours ago [-]
I agree! A refreshing interlude to the cybersecurity postmortems and corporate layoff news.
jonhohle 7 hours ago [-]
Missing The Terminator. Also applies to Wipeout, a game with some of my favorite logo and design work.
doctorhandshake 2 hours ago [-]
sgt 2 hours ago [-]
I like how the first like made the entire mobile browser go yellow, even the buttons. How did they do that?
baigy 9 hours ago [-]
> the devastating Kern Wars of 2067

Do we know who won those wars?

jamonserrano 6 hours ago [-]
Had the other side won, we would know them as the Kem Wars.
mikestorrent 8 hours ago [-]
To be honest I've had a lot of difficulty telling the two sides apart
mrexroad 2 hours ago [-]
Revenge is a typeface best served with Serifs

Keeeeerrrrrrrrrrrnnn!!

marcosdumay 7 hours ago [-]
From the result there, looks like each faction got to keep some terrain.
harimau777 13 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!

jameshart 11 hours ago [-]
harimau777 10 hours ago [-]
Nice! Thanks!
8 hours ago [-]
booleandilemma 11 hours ago [-]
My first thought was "that's just the star trek font".
bigethan 8 hours ago [-]
this is exactly the ESPN logo as well
sosomoxie 11 hours ago [-]
Ironically (I’m sure with intent). This looks super 80s.
mproud 10 hours ago [-]
Very tongue-in-cheek
holotherapper 12 hours ago [-]
Futura Free
keyle 12 hours ago [-]

    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.

QuercusMax 14 hours ago [-]
This should have a (2016)
14 hours ago [-]
timebeforeland 14 hours ago [-]
Is this a joke..?
dylan604 13 hours ago [-]
only if you don't get it
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