Alien | Typeset In The Future

[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:

[emdude]

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

[seebart]

Stumbled on this recently also:

https://typesetinthefuture.com/2016/06/19/bladerunner/

[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.

[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.

[Blaise170]

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

[Nuum]

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

[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.

[ZedTheMan]

Get off our key-board, spambot!