Alien | Typeset In The Future

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infodroid

26 Jun 2016, 00:44

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:

Image

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emdude
Model M Apologist

26 Jun 2016, 00:52

Fascinating essay, truly a shame about there being no Eurostile/Microgramma, one of my favorite typesets!

Image

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seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

26 Jun 2016, 14:51


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infodroid

26 Jun 2016, 22:56

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.

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alh84001
v.001

10 Jul 2016, 12:58

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.

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Blaise170
ALPS キーボード

17 Aug 2018, 15:24

Wasn't there actually a group buy for an Alien keyset at some point? It seems to ring a bell in my head.

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Nuum

17 Aug 2018, 15:55

Jup, there was G20 Semiotic from PMK: https://pimpmykeyboard.com/g20-semiotic-keycap-set/

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Muirium
µ

17 Aug 2018, 20:48

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.

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ZedTheMan

24 May 2019, 05:20

Get off our key-board, spambot!

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