THIS SITE’S LOGO TYPEFACES

A brief guide to the fonts from the 1960s, 70s and 80s used in our banner graphic

The smittytone’s Software Stack logo is an homage to some of the great typefaces of that increasingly distant past: the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

If you’d like some background about why these typefaces in particular were selected, please take a look at this blog post.

There are currently nine typefaces used, selected at random and re-selected every 20 seconds. They are:

From the year 1966 and the pen of designer Stan Davis comes one of the most iconic of 60s futuristic fonts. One of its most famous uses: RESL 11, BBC Records’ 7in single of the Doctor Who theme tune:

It is available from MyFonts.

Baby Teeth

Designed by Milton Glaser in the early 60s, apparently after seeing a similar design on a hand-painted sign in Mexico City. Baby Teeth was used on a large number of LP covers in the latter years of the decade, but seems to have fallen out of favour in the more modernist 1970s.

Baby Teeth is not available in digital form, so the version used here is a reconstruction which I built from from a page in a late-70s edition of the Letraset catalogue.

Designed by David Harris in 1983. Available today from MyFonts.

Designed by Colin Brignall in 1965, this typeface was regularly seen in 70s sci-fi TV, Space 1999 in particular.

It is available from MyFonts.

Designed by Bob Newman in 1970, this typeface was inspired by the likes of E-13B, a typeface created to present cheque and credit card numbers. It was used in lots of space-themed shows and confectionery. Pretty much every TV or film computer of that era had some text set in Data 70 written on it.

Data 70 is available from MyFonts.

This typeface goes back to the first half of the Twentieth Century: it was designed by Karl Sommer and first issued by the foundry Ludwig & Mayer in 1930. In the late 1970s, Letraset revived Dynamo, which almost certainly explains its appearance on numerous SF book covers around that time:

The version used on the site is from foundry Elsner & Flake. It’s also available from ITC.

Designed by Michael Chave in 1969, this was possibly the most widely used typeface on the covers of sci-fi novels in the 70s and 80s:

The typeface used here is called Marvin Visions. It is a reconstructed version of Marvin, which is not available in digital form.

Also designed by Michael Chave, this time in 1970, Pipeline too was a sci-fi book cover favourite. The typeface used here is actually Elle, noted designer Rian Hughes’ take on Pipeline, which is not available in digital form. Elle is available from MyFonts.

Made available by type foundry Face Photosetting in 1969, this is another font not available in digital form. The version used here is a reproduction of it called K22 Lucifer No.1. I am currently trying to source a particular version of Pluto called Pluto Outline.

Designed by Dean Morris in 1976, this is a special favourite of mine ever since discovering it on the packaging of a Berol (I think…) Quicksilver roller-ball pen in the early 1980s. The version of the typeface used here is an amateur’s reconstruction that I stumbled upon many years ago. Like Chromium this was a very popular typeface in the 80s; unlike Chromium it is not available officially, which is a crime.

Designed by Aldo Novarese in 1971, this has been a favourite of mine since seeing it used on a Cyberman T-shirt in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It is available from MyFonts.

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