I love typography, and I love sci-fi, and I'm probably not alone in that combination of interests.
So I'm somewhat amazed it's taken me this long to discover Typeset in the Future, a small collection of articles by Dave Addey about the use of fonts in sci-fi movies. Addey goes to extraordinary lengths to discover and indentify fonts in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ridley Scott's Alien, and Ducan Jones's Moon. For example, did you know that the title card for 2001 actually uses capital O characters (in the Gill Sans font), rather than zeroes? Or that the typography in Alien holds up quite well as looking futuristic, despite one unfortunate use of "the most 70s font of all time", Pump Demi?
Despite the rather obsessive nature of the material (one article documents over XXX uses of the font Eurostile Bold Extended in movies), the articles are ripe with insights into the storytelling processes of legendary directors, and peppered with dry humour (see in particular this take on making your sci-fi movie logo font suitably awesome). Go check out Typeset In The Future.
That's all from the blog this week. Join us back here on Monday, when we'll be reporting live from the Strata and BUILD conferences in the Bay Area. Have a great weekend!
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