How to make your text look futuristic (2016)
373 points - yesterday at 8:16 PM
Sourcesocalgal2
today at 4:07 AM
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
today at 8:23 AM
The future always has context.
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?).
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
yesterday at 8:41 PM
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
yesterday at 8:52 PM
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
yesterday at 9:04 PM
Might have to snag it, and like you say, keep it laying around as a coffee table book somewhere. :)
bit_savager
yesterday at 11:52 PM
"Somewhere"
swiftcoder
today at 10:46 AM
I love just how dated some of these futuristic fonts now seem, having grown up with most of them
Yes brings me back to the 80s demo scene…
alfiedotwtf
today at 11:20 AM
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
genghisjahn
yesterday at 9:57 PM
And then there is the papyrus font for avatar…
arionmiles
today at 8:47 AM
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.
It's tribal, yet futuristic.
moron4hire
yesterday at 10:17 PM
They can't keep getting away with it!
nntwozz
yesterday at 10:49 PM
Avatar 6 and 7 planned (there's a joke there somewhere).
Papyrus on the big screen 'til mid-to-late 2030s.
Izkata
yesterday at 11:43 PM
At least it wasn't Comic Papyrus...?
In 2016 to make text look futuristic it would require using — (m dash) a lot, and maybe …
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
today at 9:20 AM
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
yesterday at 8:55 PM
Typeset in the future was awesome, too bad it stopped updating
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.
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
yesterday at 8:52 PM
A genuinely fun post.
ctippett
yesterday at 11:29 PM
I agree! A refreshing interlude to the cybersecurity postmortems and corporate layoff news.
Missing The Terminator. Also applies to Wipeout, a game with some of my favorite logo and design work.
> the devastating Kern Wars of 2067
Do we know who won those wars?
jamonserrano
today at 5:27 AM
Had the other side won, we would know them as the Kem Wars.
mikestorrent
today at 2:56 AM
To be honest I've had a lot of difficulty telling the two sides apart
Revenge is a typeface best served with Serifs
Keeeeerrrrrrrrrrrnnn!!
marcosdumay
today at 3:39 AM
From the result there, looks like each faction got to keep some terrain.
harimau777
yesterday at 10:21 PM
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!
booleandilemma
yesterday at 11:51 PM
My first thought was "that's just the star trek font".
this is exactly the ESPN logo as well
sosomoxie
today at 12:03 AM
Ironically (I’m sure with intent). This looks super 80s.
holotherapper
yesterday at 10:49 PM
Futura Free
keyle
yesterday at 11:14 PM
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
yesterday at 8:41 PM
This should have a (2016)
timebeforeland
yesterday at 9:00 PM
Is this a joke..?
dylan604
yesterday at 9:41 PM
only if you don't get it