Monotype's Jim Ford designs retro sci-fi typeface Posterama

Date
13 September 2016

So many of our visions of the future are, perversely perhaps, shaped by the past. Science fiction films which seem almost impossibly futuristic when released become, years later, classics that are often quaint in their portrayal of what’s in store.

Perpetual sci-fi favorite Eurostile is now so ubiquitous that it’s become shorthand for the future, and likely makes an appearance in any science fiction film you can name. As Dave Addey, senior writer at Apple, observes, “Need to write a message on your rocket, lunar base or rover? You know the font to use”.

Fellow geometric sans serif Futura – reportedly Stanley Kubrick’s favorite font – has also played a role, with variations of it appearing on ship equipment in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Jim Ford’s Posterama typeface joins this long tradition of geometric sans serifs, putting classic faces such as Gill Sans and Futura through a design time warp. The end result is what Jim calls “the typeface of the future… only yesterday”, carrying a retro-futuristic charm as well as a nod back to some of the most influential periods in design history.

Divided into eight different styles – organised by era – Posterama is a wry reminder of the many different ways designers have tried to anticipate the future, from the past.

Jim, who also works as an artist and poster designer for several bands, originally made the first Posterama design as a seven-letter logo. From the off the letters were created with outer space in mind, with the bar of the A removed in reference to the old NASA logo.

The designer used these initial forms as a guide for expanding the logo into a design system, using posters from the early 20th century as a guide and researching what designers were doing with geometric typefaces at the time.

“There are many different variations, and a lot of it’s connected with Art Deco and that genre of style,” says Jim.

“I think it has to do with art and technology, and the industrial boom,” he adds. “Up to the 1920s people were influenced by machines and new technologies, and they were using them as expressive tools – in art, type, or design.”

The soft rounded corners of the letters are designed with old prints in mind, and as a way of introducing a softer, more analogue, feel. The shape of each of Posterama’s styles also reflects on trends in architecture and furniture design of the time.

Jim worked with two designers to develop the typeface, bringing along a wealth of ideas for alternates. With Posterama becoming increasingly hard to manage, the design team started developing ideas on how to organise it. While most typefaces are arranged into weights, Jim created a method that would reflect his own interest in history.

“My idea was that the years would be ways of identifying different packages,” explains Jim. “We’re used to seeing typefaces with lots of OpenType features, but the idea with Posterama was to make it easier to change the whole typeface and have a completely different look.”

Each of the typeface’s eight styles refers back to a different moment in history, from Paul Renner’s influential Futura design to classic poster type of the 1980s. Posterama 1901, with its extra slender S letters and underlined O nods to Art Nouveau, while the more jagged Posterama 1913 takes a trip back to Cubism and the work of artists such as Picasso and Duchamp.

Classic Bauhaus can be seen in Posterama 1919 – the year the school was founded – with its rounded A, while Posterama 1927 pays its respects to Paul Renner. Jim’s own favourite style, Posterama 1933, has a classic Art Deco character that pairs deliciously sinuous curves with a distinctively drop-waisted E. The designer recommends it be used with Posterama 1901 – with its Art Nouveau influences echoing Art Deco’s roots in the same style.

Other styles offer plenty for literature and pop culture enthusiasts. For those looking to borrow or subvert the visual language of political posters, Posterama 1945 contains a few furtively planted Cyrillic characters, while Posterama 1984 directly references George Orwell’s 1984. It draws heavily on the kinds of modular fonts being created to promote dystopian sci fi such as Blade Runner and Videodrome in the 80s. Kubrick’s hugely influential 2001: A Space Odyssey formed the basis for Posterama 2001, with its classic crossbar-less A taken straight from the pages of NASA’s design guidelines.

Aside from its unusual system of organisation, Jim promises Posterama “holds up to a lot of abuse”.

“I like that it gives a printed feel to digital media, and makes it more soft and familiar,” he says. “I think the expectation with new typefaces is that they’re perfect all the time – not to say that Posterama isn’t, but it has a little bit more softness and charm to it.”

Posterama is included in the Monotype Library Subscription. Get unlimited access to over 2,200 font families. Try it for free.

Share Article

Further Info

About the Author

Sponsored Content

This article was sponsored by a brand, so is marked up by us as Sponsored Content. To understand more about how we work with brands and sponsorships, please head over to our Work With Us page.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.