I just flipped through some 80s-publications: Helvetica.
does Helvetica count as typical for anything?

late 80s: Futura (Bold, uppercase), Industria, Insignia

At the time, I used mostly Helvetica, Futura, and Avant Garde.
But those were designed earlier, and have had sustained usage.

So I would say, Laudatio (1982), which was quite popular at the time, but not much afterwards — although it is presently being used by Tim Hortons.

I love Laudatio, but have trouble seeing it as a sans.

In the 80s I was still mostly cloistered in the world of making bitmap
fonts, so I have no recollection of what sans fonts were popular. Whew.

hhp

I think I was using Gill Sans on pretty much everything. That was my Gill Sans period. Now I can’t stand to use it.

— K.

...have trouble seeing it as a sans.

True, a near-sans.

How about Symbol? Benguiat Gothic?
Not really pure sans either.

...what sans fonts were popular.

Not a lot. The action was serific.

Univers Italic (see April Greiman’s work). I second Insignia.

Hi everyone,

I third Insignia! ;-D

And I’d have to nominate Futura Condensed as a very ’80s sans serif. Yeah, I know it’s been around and in use a long time, but it seemed to me that it was EVERYWHERE during the Me Decade.

Avant Garde was still getting a lot of use, but to me that’s a quintessentially ’70s sans serif.

Helvetica was everywhere too, but to me that doesn’t exactly count because to most people back then, it was a “default” “block style” font. Heck, until the Mac made its debut in 1984 I had never heard of the word “font” except in the baptismal sense! ;-)

Cheers,
John the Fontaholic

A little bit about Industria.

“Brody rapidly constructed the typeface later named Industria, and debuted it throughout The Face in July. What a leap, and so rare: an art director designing a typeface for his own magazine.”

Actually Industria seems to be based closely on some student work from the first half of the 20th century, specifically from the Stuttgart School of Decorative Art. See page 105 of “130 Alphabets & Other Signs” by J Rothenstein & M Gooding.

hhp

I’ve seen other putative precusors too.
But the similarity is likely a coincidence, as the design principal of the face is so simple.

Something similar happened to me. After I had designed Eunoia, I discovered that patricking had beaten me to the punch with a somewhat similar “exercise in pure geometry”, Fast Girls.

futura condensed bold, industria, typeface six.

dr

> But the similarity is likely a coincidence

That’s possible. See attached. Are any of the ones you’ve seen this close?

hhp

This is Dutch, anon., c.1935.

Also caps, Morris Benton’s Raleigh Condensed.

Perhaps there is some influence of Soviet constructivism, e.g. Rodchenko’s “CPAZY” poster lettering:

BTW, isn’t that logo for GUM neat? The same idea is currently appearing as section heads in Wired!

But really, I doubt Neville directly referenced earlier sources. Look at your own experience with bitmaps, Hrant, there’s not much room to move within strict constraints.

**

Industria wasn’t available as a font until 1990, and there was nothing else like it available during the 80s, so can it be considered typical, even though it is iconic?

> there’s not much room to move within strict constraints.

True, but there’s a “genetic” difference between a constraint coming from a medium (lo-res screen) versus a constraint that somebody dreams up: unlike the former, the latter can possibly been inspired by another designer’s work. As in “Oh, that looks like an interesting constraint - let me see what I can do with that”. Unlike in bitmap fonts, Industria had no “inherited” constraints. That said, I do agree that Industria could very well be “original”.

hhp

> Perhaps there is some influence of Soviet constructivism, e.g. Rodchenko’s poster lettering
Brody stated something like that in an interview with Der Spiegel (1988 or ’89).

Brody stated something like that in an interview with Der Spiegel (1988 or ’89)

He didn’t state it but it said in that article that books about russian constructivism could be spottet on the shelves in his studio.

Ubiquitous and in the background: Helvetica, Univers, and still a lot of Avantgarde

What I used most: Futura - all weights, (think extrabold caps, bold ital u/l, bold condensed, light all caps) - it felt rebellious and new wave against the not exactly sans, but very prevalent Souvenir, Stymie, etc., also some Gill Sans

What I was very excited about because they were so hard to get - mostly on typositor: Radiant, Empire

Representative but very hard to get: Insignia, Industria

A lot of condensed type.(Think Univers Ultra Condensed)

The fun of phototype: condensing type, letterspacing it.

The fun of the photocopy machine: distressing it

Stop is the 80s font for me...
And all forms of ugly cuts of Garamond and similar.
agree with vivicity: avantgarde, Futura Bold/Xbold, and souvenir...