Corporate’s wide stance, simplified forms, and rounded rectangles are strongly associated with 1970s–90s tech. The ColecoVision console, released in 1982, used the typeface for its name. Nintendo must have liked what they saw, because three years later they released their NES, employing the same typeface for its logo and labeling.

Corporate was released in 1971 by Alphabet Innovations, having licensed the design from its creator, Roc Mitchell. Mitchell passed away in 2015 after a 60-year career in commercial art — and his letters printed on millions of electronic gadgets.

The Coleco Industries logo (seen at the far right of this console) uses a much older rectangular sans, Eurostile (or Microgramma).

Expansion Module #1

Expansion Module #2. The speedometer uses Serpentine.

Nintendo Entertainment System, 1985

Corporate’s wide stance, simplified forms, and rounded rectangles are strongly associated with 1970s–90s tech. The original Nintendo Entertainment System, and many of its related components, used the typeface for its name and other labeling, copying the ColecoVision from three years before.

Corporate was released in 1971 by Alphabet Innovations, having licensed the design from its creator, Roc Mitchell. Mitchell passed away in 2015 after a 60-year career in commercial art — and his letters printed on millions of electronic gadgets.

Nintendo Entertainment System controller

Nintendo NES Four Score, 1990. This version of Corporate has angled cuts in many of the strokes. It’s available digitally as Corporate URW.

Nintendo Entertainment System, model NES-101, 1993

The Nintendo Zapper is a light gun that was launched on October 18, 1985. The orange variant shown here followed in 1988. It uses Inverserif for “Zapper”.

Pretty epic find by Robert Beatty (@EdSunspot): These are the titles for a TV feature about Laurence J. Peter’s theory that “every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence”.

The graphics are by Liz Friedman, who then had just started her career at BBC. For the animated typographic intertitles, she chose Chin Century 2000, a futuristic film typeface that originated at Photoscript in London. It came in at least six styles. “The Peter Principle” is in either No. 5 or the bolder No. 6, which are italic variants with conical letterforms.

The program was produced by Peter Riding for BBC Colour in 1973, with music by Paddy Kingsland of the Radiophonic Workshop, best known for his later work for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Doctor Who.

The second typeface used in the titles is Bulletin Typewriter.

1971 Bantam Books edition of Fredric Brown's Rogue In Space featuring a striking use of Photo-Lettering’s Pacella Barrel, a very similar typeface to Gemini Biform of the same era by Lettergraphics or FotoStar (the difference lying in the counters, and execution of the alternate shapes, e/a/n/m/w).

Illustration by Lou Feck (uncredited, but signed).

Alpha Midnight is used with some of its biform alternates, see T and E.

[More info on ISFDB]

Amelia used on the cover of the 1967 debut album Cauldron by Fifty Foot Hose.

Discogs:

Psychedelic rock group from San Francisco, formed in 1967, disbanded in 1970 and re-formed in 1995. Combining the sounds of rock with electronic instruments and avant-garde compositional ideas, they are recognized as precursors to bands like Throbbing Gristle.

Back cover

Inner sleeve

License: All Rights Reserved.

License: All Rights Reserved.

License: All Rights Reserved.

From Wikipedia:

Paradroid is a Commodore 64 computer game written by Andrew Braybrook and published by Hewson Consultants in 1985. It is a shoot ’em up with puzzle elements and was critically appraised at release. The objective is to clear a fleet of spaceships of hostile robots by destroying them or taking them over via a mini-game.

Paradroid uses a stylised Data 70 for its title and Motter Tektura for everything else (credits, status, score).

Source: www.flickr.com Rain Rabbit. License: CC BY-NC.

Source: www.flickr.com Kevin Simpson. License: CC BY-SA.

A very computeristic typeface for a book about automation. This is the same version of Gemini Computer or predecessor used for Pubblicità in Italia, 1964–1965. Among other differences from later versions are the ‘H’, ‘M’, ‘W’.

Edited by Roger Elwood. Illustrated by Rod Ruth. Designer/typographer not credited.

Invaders, Creatures, and Alien Worlds

Crystal Creatures, Bird-things, & Other Weirdies

From the newly launched New Metaphor Books:

Gazing into a crystal ball in 1971 — twenty-nine years ahead of the millennium — architectural thinker Charles Jencks published a provocative entry in Praeger’s Books that Matter series. Applying methods of forecasting developed in the scientific disciplines, Architecture 2000 explores predictions taken both from architectural forecasters and those in related fields.

An appropriate futuristic use of the obscure Westminster, perhaps the first typeface to alphabetize the MICR aesthetic. Its odd letter widths are owed to the fact that it is based on the proportions of Gill Sans. So British.

This is one of the funkier timelines I’ve seen.

Source: www.flickr.com Photo by Windell Oskay of Evil Mad Scientist. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.flickr.com Photo by Windell Oskay of Evil Mad Scientist. License: All Rights Reserved.

Blip was a portable Pong-style game made in 1977, the year handheld video games were just catching on. Although it was branded “The Digital Game”, the action was purely mechanical, powered by a wind-up timer. According to the Handheld Games Museum, “The batteries are only there to light up the single red LED light that represents the ball. (You can actually play the game with no batteries in a bright enough setting).”

But that didn’t hold Tomy back from playing up the “digital” aspect. The late 1970s were all about video games, so the company did their best to hide Blip’s true analog nature, branding the product so it looked and felt high-tech and electronic. The name itself is an obvious reference to the sound a computer might make, and they pounded that into the heads of consumers in this television spot.

Source: www.handheldmuseum.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.handheldmuseum.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Besides the name, type played a major part in Tomy’s futuristic aims: what could be more computerized than Computer? The typeface was used for “The Digital Game” on the box, and the Blip logo was likely derived from Computer as well, but it needed some creative modification as the font had no lowercase. A cap ‘L’ works fine for the lowercase ‘l’, and a squashed cap ‘P’ can fake a minuscule if it descends below the baseline. Meanwhile, the logo on the unit itself appears to be set in Orbit-B, a design similar to Computer, but lighter and more square, with larger counters.

License: All Rights Reserved.

Japanese and German editions of Blip, courtesy sellers swow and Los Reyes Magos.

The Japanese version (left) was labeled “World Tennis”, set in Data 70, another simplified take on the MICR aesthetic. The same font was also used on the packaging for the German “Blip-o-mat” (right).

If you add it all up, this odd little game managed to utilize all three of the MICR-style fonts that were frequently found in futuristic films, entertainment, and other products throughout the 1970s and ’80s. Read more about the relationship between this type genre and video gaming in an extensive article by Zach Whalen.

The Cars, Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 24, 1980.

Ticketron was a computerized event ticketing technology that was in operation from the 1960s until it was purchased by Ticketmaster in 1991. The name and look were obviously intended to play up the futuristic, computerized nature of the product. According to the uncited history on Wikipedia:

The system used terminals that it called “electronic box offices” that were located in publicly accessible locations, such as banks and department stores. … The original software resided on a pair (one for backup) of Control Data Corporation 1700 computers that were located in the basement of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The logo used Gemini Computer (AKA Sonic) with a flipped ‘E’ for a better fit next to the ‘T’. The ‘O’ is also customized, or from a version of the font that differs from this 1980 sample. Ticketron employed a huge range of ticket designs, with various logo variations, patterns, and colors — presumably to prevent counterfeiting. I’m partial to the electronic rainbow dots of 1980.

California Jam festival, Ontario, CA, Apr. 6, 1974.

Modern English, San Antonio, TX, Jun. 12, 1984.

Above: Neil Young and The International Harvesters, Hampton, VA, Sep. 12, 1985. 
Below: Shocking Pinks, Aug. 27 1983. An alternate Ticketron logo is set in Friz Quadrata.

Jane's Addiction, Cleveland, OH, Mar. 8, 1989.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Los Angeles, CA, Jun. 16, 1990.

Baltimore Orioles, Jun. 7, 1991.

 Watkins Glen Summer Jam, New York, Jun. 28, 1973.

Football, 1977

“Mattel began making handheld electronic games in 1976, beginning with a handheld version of Missile Command. Games such as Auto Race and Football soon followed, and were sold through Sears. By 1978, these games were huge hits, selling as many as 50,000 per week. Mattel eventually turned their attention to the production of the Intellivision console system, but these early handheld games continue to remain an important part of their history with electronic games.” — Museum of Play

The Mattel Electronics logo appears to be Gemini Computer with customized ‘M’, ‘A’, and ‘N’.

Baseball, 1978

Auto Race, 1976

Soccer, 1978

Sub Chase, 1978

Football 2, 1978

Basetball 2, 1979

Armor Battle, 1978

Football, 1977

Missle Attack, 1976. Logo a customized Futura Display?

Basketball, 1978

“Byte magazine was an American microcomputer magazine, influential in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage. … From 1975 through 1986 Byte covers usually featured the artwork of Robert Tinney. These covers made Byte visually unique. In 1987 Tinney's paintings were replaced by product photographs.” — Wikipedia

The original BYTE logo was set in Countdown. In the mid-1980s the mark was modified into a custom set of letters that were more blocky due to squaring off the circular counters.

See full issues of BYTE magazine on the Internet Archive.

“The lowercase ‘c’ has been opened up. In the stock version, the opening is about as wide as the one in the ‘e’.” — Mark Simonson

Vectrex Graphic Computer System, Light Pen, and 3D Imager

Campy sci-fi book series published in Spanish throughout the 1970s, as seen on Mundo Bocado. Many more examples, complete with art and design credits, at Le Tercera Fundación.