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Alien | Typeset In The Future
Posted: 26 Jun 2016, 00:44
by infodroid
This essay from 2014 is a fascinating look at the Alien movie through the lens of typography:
Alien | Typeset In The Future
It covers the sleek title sequence as well as the iconography from the
Semiotic Standard For All Commercial Trans-Stellar Utility Lifter And Heavy Element Transport Spacecraft. One thing I liked was coverage of the keyboard for the emergency destruction system:

Posted: 26 Jun 2016, 00:52
by emdude
Fascinating essay, truly a shame about there being no Eurostile/Microgramma, one of my favorite typesets!

Posted: 26 Jun 2016, 14:51
by seebart
Posted: 26 Jun 2016, 22:56
by infodroid
Thanks seebart, I didn't the Blade Runner piece before! At least Eurostile made an appearance. Unfortunately not much keyboard coverage compared to the Alien one. Although I vaguely remember the clacking of keys somewhere in the movie, excluding the piano of course. I may have to watch it again.
Posted: 10 Jul 2016, 12:58
by alh84001
Completely by coincidence a friend of mine sent me a link to the blade runner entry the other day, and it's a funny and enlightening read. So I read all the others in the next couple of days (usually after reading one, I would have 10 to 20 new tabs open

). So one of the links I stumbled upon is
http://www.gavinrothery.com/they-never- ... -the-moon/
Made by the guy that worked as VFX supervisor/graphics designer on Moon. If you enjoyed typesetinthefuture blog, I think this one may interest to you as well.
Posted: 17 Aug 2018, 15:24
by Blaise170
Wasn't there actually a group buy for an Alien keyset at some point? It seems to ring a bell in my head.
Posted: 17 Aug 2018, 15:55
by Nuum
Posted: 17 Aug 2018, 20:48
by Muirium
That screenshot is the ultimate sci-fi keyboard. Pranic Lift enagaged!
There’s one more typographic anomaly to be found during the self-destruct sequence. Remember when Ripley was punching NUCLEAR BOLT CODE No 1 into that funny-looking keyboard? Well, it turns out to be a very strange keyboard indeed. Here’s the central panel for your closer inspection. I’ve Photoshopped a composite image from several frames, to make it easier to see all of the keys without Ripley getting her hand in the way.
…
You might think this is an odd thing to be written on the keyboard of an emergency destruction system. You would be correct.
Re: Alien | Typeset In The Future
Posted: 24 May 2019, 05:20
by ZedTheMan
Get off our key-board, spambot!