En — The cover The Artificial intelligence edition by Elaine Rich published in 1983 by McGraw-Hill editions motivated this project. The typography used on the cover is none other than China designed by M. Mitchell in 1975. It is known to have been used for the title of the Terminator franchise. China was then digitally redesigned with a larger set of typefaces containing lower case letters by Mark Simonson between 2003 and 2008. However, this redesigned version follows its grid scrupulously, leaving little room for curves and diagonals. This one is therefore rectangular and can appear “empatté” on some characters such as the B and the R.
Neo eighties proposes a typeface set based on a long and rigorous grid close to the one of China designed by M. Mitchell. My project is composed of curved typefaces, with dynamic diagonals and a lowercase set. To create the lowercase letters, I drew inspiration from various sources, such as fractures, scripts and lineals. The lower case disrupts the uppercase. The caps allow to create long regular lines while the lower case causes jumps, holes and more curves.
I used this typeface on the different objects I co-designed for the Cumulus Project. You can also find and test this font here.