Weird font choice

André G. Isaak
André G. Isaak Posts: 633
in Technique and Theory
I just caught the opening credits of "Star Trek: First Contact" on TV and was rather perplexed. I understand that Eurostile Bold Extended is overused, but who in their right mind would think that ITC Benguiat suggests ‘futuristic’?

Comments

  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    Remember that in any era graphic design is mostly about following trends...
  • André G. Isaak
    André G. Isaak Posts: 633
    This is true, but I must have missed the particular trend.
  • Theunis de Jong
    Theunis de Jong Posts: 112
    Yves Peters also has a lovely write-up at https://www.fontshop.com/content/the-typography-of-star-trek

    As for Benguiat, he mentions it was used twice in succession:
    The title sequences for the Next Generation films didn’t feature the typical Star Trek fonts neither, but more conventional typography. Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: First Contact had the ITC Benguiat® typeface, Star Trek: Insurrection used the ITC Elan™ typeface, and Star Trek: Nemesis Exocet.

  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,734
    Yves' piece is great. Star Trek's typography is a mess.  :)
  • André G. Isaak
    André G. Isaak Posts: 633
    I appreciate the lessons in Star Trek font history — I’ve never really been much of a Trekkie so I hadn't noticed these before. Galaxy and Crillee make sense to me. The others, not so much (especially Exocet which to me has more Gothic (in the non-typographic sense) connotations).
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    @James Montalbano I can feel that door closing ;-)
  • John Savard
    John Savard Posts: 1,126
    André G. Isaak said:
    but who in their right mind would think that ITC Benguiat suggests ‘futuristic’?
    If Benguiat is given context, if the lower-case is used, yes, it doesn't look futuristic.

    But in a pinch, if the context suggests the printing is supposed to look futuristic, Benguiat could do in a pinch.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,436
    edited May 2019
    Since the future hasn't happened yet, there's no font choice that's obviously wrong!  Maybe things will play out that Benguiat is the only font used in the 24th century! :-) In 1825 I bet nobody would have thought that 150 years from then, really bold Caslons would be the rage.

    (Or maybe we're in a multiverse, in which case it's a fair bet there's an alternate universe in which the 24th century is dominated by 1970s ITC fonts.)
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    if people still read then.
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    Especially in the Latin script...
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    edited May 2019
    James Montalbano said:
    With so little time left in our lives do we really need to worry about these stupid things?

    I intend to live forever.
    So far, so good.

    And compared to actual present-day technology, StarTrek seems sooo quaint to me :)
  • K Pease
    K Pease Posts: 182
    All futurism is nostalgia. Especially now. It's too late for every future we've ever imagined, each of which springs from a point in the past that needed to go differently thereafter. Benguiat reminds us of pulp covers from the '70s and '80s.

    Star Trek, specifically, is a universe where, impossibly, all creative culture ceased at the dawn of the 20th century and all they have to talk about is Shakespeare, Melville, Doyle, Gilgamesh, and more Shakespeare, over and over. If anything, it's surprising the number on the hull is not in Caslon.
  • Ray Larabie
    Ray Larabie Posts: 1,432
    edited May 2019
    While it's easy to snark on Trek type, I do love the Star Trek the Motion Picture typeface. When I look at Star Trek design in general, I think it mimics whatever the contemporary corporate look was at the time it was made. I don't mean the fonts, just look at the bridge designs. Add an IBM Selectric to the original series or an IBM 5170 to Next Gen and they'd blend right in. But the typography doesn't always match that look. Crillee, use for Next Gen didn't look out of place in 1987.

    But Star Trek the Motion Picture's typeface seemed to allude to an elegant future aesthetic. That look probably had roots in the disco deco look that was hot in 1979 but it works in a sci-fi context. Even though I was 9 when I saw that movie, I recall noticing that the swashes on the S and K mimicked the Star Wars logotype. I think it had a gold airbrush effect in the opening titles but my memory might be playing tricks on me. Benguiat feels like 1970's Americana to me and in a futuristic context it makes as much sense as a cowboy-style slab serif. Sure, maybe in the future everything will be written in old timey Western fonts or Crillee or Benguiat. But in 2019 it feels implausible and incongruous.

    While new Star Wars releases and Star Trek Motion Picture used ITC Serif Gothic, I think it works as a sci-fi font as it doesn't have too much old Americana style.
  • Andrew Wood
    Andrew Wood Posts: 42
    Crillee would be a nominally good, but stylistically bad choice for the titles of Father Ted.

  • Ben Blom
    Ben Blom Posts: 250

    What a font “suggests”, is only in the head of the beholder. The idea that a font is “futuristic”, “female”, “male”, “happy”, or whatever, is a cultural thing. None of those labels are inherent in the design of a font. If you want, you can be a member of a “subculture” using a specific label—or you can just ignore any of those arbitrary labels.

  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    edited May 2019
    Ben Blom said:

    What a font “suggests”, is only in the head of the beholder. The idea that a font is “futuristic”, “female”, “male”, “happy”, or whatever, is a cultural thing. None of those labels are inherent in the design of a font. If you want, you can be a member of a “subculture” using a specific label—or you can just ignore any of those arbitrary labels.

    I find this stance to be anti-design, anti-cultural.

    K Pease said:
    All futurism is nostalgia.

    It's too late for every future we've ever imagined, each of which springs from a point in the past that needed to go differently thereafter.
    This is lucid and lyrical. Thank you.
  • Claudio Piccinini
    Claudio Piccinini Posts: 681
    K Pease said:
    All futurism is nostalgia. Especially now. It's too late for every future we've ever imagined, each of which springs from a point in the past that needed to go differently thereafter. Benguiat reminds us of pulp covers from the '70s and '80s.
    Ehm… At any rate, you can always think about “dystopian” futures. There’s plenty of room for that, especially if one keeps swaying between fatalism and un-lifelikeness. :)

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