I'm OK, You're OK

By and large the 70's was about bold, geometric and sometimes three-dimensional fonts. Typefaces were often flashy and overly ornate (think Three's Company) as the nature of design demanded that type "work harder" to get the reader's (or consumer's) attention. Furthering the move to digital design, typesetting becomes more and more popular with the help of companies like The International Typeface Corporation (ITC...as in ITC New Baskerville) which began revamping old type in an effort to minimize the threat of font that was photographically copied.


Popular styles continue to repeat and the Art Deco soars during the 70's aiding a transition from the psychedelic 60's to the "business" look of the late 70's and early 80's.



Perhaps the best of all 70's fonts was Bookman, seen in the Spectra Setter ad above and here in a modern (as in recently created) design. It's the quintessential 70's face; it's showy and little too ornate, it's had a tough life and it's trying real hard not to show its age, but somewhere underneath all that glitz and flash is a pretty face with a message.



Quiz Question: What font, which utilizes a charted system of easily recognizable faces was finished in 1976 by Adrian Frutiger?