Typography of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

https://typesetinthefuture.com/2020/08/17/startrek/

by tosh • 6 years ago

122 8 6 years ago

jamwaffles• 6 years ago

I'm not affiliated in any way, but Dave Addey's book of the same name as the blog is fantastic. Highly recommended if you're into weirdly specific stuff like why there's specific text on the motion scanner Ripley uses in Alien. (spoilers: IIRC it's just Letraset gibberish)

TOGoS• 6 years ago

I read way too far into this article wondering when it would start talking about the topography of that giant cloud thing.

dmreedy• 6 years ago

Man, I feel like the Blaster Beam almost deserves a discussion of its own. That thing is wild (link from the article) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj4f5z6nRhs

golem14• 6 years ago

The book is very nice. Coffee table books for true nerds, next to Tufte. But I wish there were more recent updates or a 2nd volume where they look at newer material, like "person of interest", "Black matter", "The Expanse", ...

nickff• 6 years ago

I also have the book, and agree that it is very nicely put together. A sequel would definitely be in order, given that we seem to be in a third age of science fiction.

rrauenza• 6 years ago

The problem here is obvious, isn’t it? Unlike the Es in “SHATNER” and “LEONARD,” the ones in “DEFOREST KELLEY” have straight corners, not curved ones:

Was this a mistake? Intentional? Are these letters hand drawn? Stenciled?

Any graphic artists in the house?

davidivadavid• 6 years ago

They could be contextual alternates, but they seem to defy any sort of logic to support that. Seems like a mistake/oddity.

smegcicle• 6 years ago

Notice how the E in the Horizon font specimen also shows straight corners- perhaps they forgot to use their handcrafted version? Strange thing to not point out in the text...

Typography of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

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