Shaping the Page
What Typefaces Represent the Past Decade?
Like certain songs can drum up memories of a bygone era, seeing a typeface in use can be a reminder of the fashion, design trends, and even social climate of those years the type was in heavy use. And since we’re wrapping up another decade of design (please withhold any arguments of whether or not 2010 is the “true” end of the decade), I began to wonder: What typefaces will end up reminding me of this first decade of the century?
But first let’s back up and take a trip down memory lane and look at a few of the decades leading up to where we are now. Mind you these are the typefaces that remind ME of each respective decade. You just may (and probably should) have your own unique selection that triggers memories for you. After all, just because shoegaze music represents the ’90s to ME certainly doesn’t mean those songs will do the same for everyone. But I think the typefaces I’ve picked below are of a broad enough influence that most will be able to relate, and I’ll try to limit the picks to just three a decade. Since I was born in the early ’70s we’ll start there:
The ’70s
My experience of the ’70s was as a child. I remember learning to read, being taught how to open my chocolate milk carton in kindergarten, and of course watching Star Wars. When I see the following typefaces in use, I’m brought right back to those early years of my life:
Bookman
It seems many of the children’s books I read during this decade were set in either Bookman or Century Schoolbook. Seeing either reminds me of the ’70s, but I think Bookman was more distinctive, especially with the use of those alternate swash characters in advertising and everywhere else. There’s been a Bookman resurgence as of late since ITC rereleased it a few years ago in OpenType, swashes and all. And each time I see it I can smell the halls of my elementary school.
Avant Garde
I once worked for a company who hadn’t updated its visual identity since the ’70s. Everything from their logo to their brochures and business cards were all set in Avant Garde. It seemed to be the sans serif of choice for many during that time. Avant Garde had some really unique alternate characters and ligatures which made it easy to make an instant logo. I wonder how many companies designed and launched their new Avant Garde “instant logos” only to discover every other company launching the same thing?
Souvenir
Perhaps Souvenir was given as a free gift to every design and advertising firm in the ’70s because it was everywhere, and used for everything. Even before I knew what a typeface was I’d sort of recognize Souvenir when I saw it in a book or in an ad. It’s popularity definitely spilled into the ’80s.
The ’80s
The ’80s for me was all about The Dukes of Hazard, BMX flatland, and high school. It was also the decade I became semi-serious about design, often sketching out custom alphabets on my Trapper Keepers, as well as designing and publishing my own underground quarterly zine. It’d be easy to say that any ITC typeface represents the ’80s, but I’ll go ahead and pick just 3:
Garamond Condensed
Certainly made popular when Apple adopted their own version of this typeface (Apple Garamond) for use in their visual identity, and flipping through old ’80s magazines shows how popular it was for others as well to use ITC’s version in ads and for headlines. Seeing Garamond Condensed reminds me of rainbow-colored apples and square mice.
Mistral
Mistral reminds me of the ’80s because it seems so many script typefaces in the ’80s sort of looked like Mistral, even if they weren’t. Remember the logotype for the movie Dirty Dancing? It wasn’t Mistral, but it had a similar feel and that’s what I’m talking about. Plus one of the places I worked at had a large set of PMT clipart books from the ’80s, and Mistral must’ve been the only script in the clipart company’s arsenal.
Americana
OK, so Americana isn’t an ITC face, and even though it was designed in an earlier decade it still screams the ’80s to me. I still see it in the wild every now and then, especially in animated GIFs within the chain emails my relatives send me. Usually next to the image of an eagle or something similar.
The ’90s
This decade included my college years, as well as my first positions as a “real” designer working in the “real” world. This was definitely a transitional time in the world of type. You had people like David Carson and the explosion of grunge design shaking things up. I was also a big fan of Carlos Segura and would drool over each T26 catalog that would come in the mail. This decade was a challenge for me to pin down specific typefaces because it seems the trends were more defined in how the faces were used, instead of what faces were used. Which is why my first pick isn’t a typeface at all:
Ray Gun Magazine
So much of design and layout from the ’90s can be summed up in Ray Gun Magazine. All traditional typographic rules and etiquette were removed and replaced with an air of experimentation, as if a new language was being invented on the fly. Impractical and just plain ugly to some, I look back and see this era of design as a sort of purifying, setting up the ’00s as a decade to reestablish the design traditions that truly make sense.
Mrs. Eaves
When Emigre released Mrs. Eaves in 1996, it was like watching a princess walk into a punk rock bar. All the grunge and distressed type of the day was so loud, and Mrs. Eaves made you take note with just a whisper. Mrs. Eaves is one of those typefaces you make up a project just as an excuse to use it.
Officina Sans
For the longest time Officina Sans was the only sans serif I had that looked “modern” to me. My collection of Gill Sans, Eras, Eurostile, etc. was looking long in the tooth, so I used Officina like crazy. To this day that typeface reminds me of freelancing on my Power Mac 7100.
The ’00s
The ’00s? Is that what we call this past decade? These are the years that the internet really took a life of its own. And although I made a few websites in the ’90s, it wasn’t until this past decade that the average person would understand me when I told them I do web design and development. Twenty years from now here are the typefaces I think will most remind me of this first decade of the century:
Myriad
I had stacks and stacks of Adobe user manuals all over my office. This was when you had to buy their software on CD and DVD, no downloads. Those manuals just seemed to collect as I never threw away the old ones when upgrading to the newer versions of their software. Myriad (along with Minion) was the main typeface used in all those manuals, and Adobe still uses it in most of their marketing materials. But I think Apple gets credit for making Myriad a celebrity when it switched to Myriad after using Apple Garamond for so many years. Myriad will always remind me of Apple’s rise to success at the beginning of the century, and it will remind me of troubleshooting Creative Suite issues using stacks of Adobe user manuals.
Gotham
If Myriad was the star of the first half of the decade, Gotham surpassed its popularity in the second half. Its use in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign just sped up the inevitable and made Gotham a household typeface almost overnight. And once Hoefler & Frere-Jones license it for use as a web font we’re sure to see a Gotham explosion all over again.
Georgia
Of course I had to get a web font on the list. There are other browser-safe fonts just as popular, but to me Georgia is just about perfect (my only request would be a semi-bold weight and a subset of lining numerals). With services like Typekit and Fontdeck growing in popularity the future might see less and less of Georgia in use. But that won’t make it any less of a typeface, and to me Georgia will always be the poster child of design on the web for the ’00s.
Those are my picks for the typefaces that represent the past decade to me. It’ll be interesting to see where the next 10 years of type and design take us, and which typefaces rise up to carry the torch as representatives of the decade to come. I’m looking at you, Proxima Nova.
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