30 August 2010

[type] Those 80's Fonts: 10 Blasts From The Past That Are Still Fresh

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Today at CreativePro.com I found an article that displayed 10 fonts that are throroughly 80's ... but still seem as timeless as fashion's little black dress.

The article is here: http://www.creativepro.com/article/10-typefaces-80s.

The fonts are Century Old Style, Aldine 721 Light, ITC Clearface, Raleigh, Zapf Elliptical 711, ITC Eras Book, Eurostile, Frutiger 55 (Roman), ITC Italia Book, and ITC Friz Quadrata. Looking over them, I realized that, indeed that, though they are from the 80's, they really still stand up well.

The first four are straight-up good body type designs, that stand up well against and harmonize with the character I see in my go-to body type font, Garamond. They have a design that is happy and satisfies the eye while not being so floridly ornamental that the design filips also distract. What really got my attntion, though, was the way that Zapf Elliptical 711 echoes a great font for instructional books: Melior.

They're all nifty for body type, and could be just the thing if Garamond ever needs a rest.

The remainder of the list are more decorative and sans-serif. Eras Book is a wonderful, light alternative to Eras Bold which, while is not over used, tends to get used too much when it gets used. Eurostile is a nifty, geometric, no-nonsense font that gave birth to Microgramma Extended, which is one of the fonts in the Star Trek universe (check out the classing Star Fleet Technical Manual). Frutiger 55 bears a strong resemblance to Myriad, but not close enough to be a nice change of pace. The last two are niftily-decorative, but don't overdo it.

Either they're timeless in their way, or fashion has come back round to them - either way, they look like font's I'd add to my arsenal, given the chance, to do modern-looking work today ... 30 years since 1980.

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