by Jason Snell
Typeset in the Future: Alien
Look, I assume you all read Daring Fireball, so you’ve probably all seen Dave Addey’s piece about the typography of “Alien”, but I have to link to it anyway.
The opening credits for Alien are nothing short of a typographic masterpiece. You can watch them in their entirety on the Art Of The Title web site, but here’s the general gist: a slow, progressive disclosure of a disjointed, customized Futura reveals the movie’s central theme over 90 seconds of beautifully-spaced angular lettering.
I got to see Dave Addey give a presentation about future type at Cingleton this year and it was just amazing. So much so that when I took my kids to their pediatrician the other week to get their flu shots, I couldn’t help notice that the building feels like it belongs in a sci-fi movie because it’s labeled with Eurostile Bold Extended.
Steve Jobs always liked the intersection of liberal arts and technology. As for me, looks like I’m sitting on a cardboard box on the corner of font nerd and sci-fi nerd.