Retro font style, also well-known as a vintage or classic font style, takes inspiration from different design aspects of the past. You can trace back the root to numerous artistic movements – from the Victorian era’s decorative scripts to the mid-20th century’s bold sans-serif typefaces.
Over time, retro font style has evolved, adjusting to fluctuating trends in designs and technologies. The evolution echoes not only changes in artistic preferences but also improvements in typographic techniques.
This article will explore further about retro fonts, their characteristics, and applications, as well as a list of recommendations to add a touch of nostalgia to any creative works.
Retro font style typically takes inspiration from different periods, each offering unique typographic characters, respectively. Each era delivers a rich interwoven of design aspects that represent or express their times.
For example, you can date back to the quirky, smooth scripts prevalent in the 1950s and the 1960s. Or, you can ponder further back to the Art Deco era’s bold and geometric shapes.
Other popular retro font styles are the bold and vibrant aesthetics of the 70s and 80s (e.g., the disco-inspired typography or bold vintage arcade games) and the so-called typewriter fonts that bring back simplicity and nostalgia.
The Characteristics
Prominent characteristics of retro font style usually include, among others, the typographic elements – serifs vs sans serifs and typeface anatomy. The latter comprises designed elements, such as x-height, letter spacing, kerning, etc.
Serif fonts often bring about tradition and formality vibes due to their ornate flourishes. Meanwhile, sans-serifs radiate a more modern ambiance with their contemporary and clean lines.
The Applications
Some retro font style applications in modern designs are as follows.
We have curated a list of inspiring retro font style ideas that will bring back a sense of nostalgia in any of your creative design projects.
Amplified with a street-wise brush script, Bustro is a brush font handcrafted with natural strokes that radiate full energy. You will easily notice the swift stroke and sharp details that are perfect for any design with high art in strong, masculine, and retro style.
Those characteristics are distinctly ideal for challenging professional designs, including branding, websites, logotypes, clothing (hoodies, t-shirts, etc.), posters, events, digital media, and more.
Morvino Growing is a serif display monoline font hand-drawn in a minimalist and retro font style. You will find it unique and highly easy to read, making it suitable for any design purposes.
You can use this typeface for fun or kid-themed design applications, including baby necessities, book covers, or crafts. It is also ideal to attach a touch of vintage flair to product packaging or designs, labels, quotes, logos, craftsmen, branding, or photography.
If you want to add a touch of rustic retro vibe to your creative works, Teak Wood can be one of the best options. It is a retro and Western display font that combines the rustic stylishness of the old Wild West.
Designed in a rugged style, this font holds an instant vintage appeal that will bring back nostalgic and authentic feelings. Capturing the essence of the eras gone by, Teak Wood is great as a retro marketing tools and for designing logos, posters, restaurants, merchandise, and more.
Tikgar is a retro vintage display font of the serif typeface family. This font is truly impressive with its attention-grabbing bold style and unique shapes. Not to mention a high level of readability, making it ideal for any design application.
You may find this font under several tags like 90s, funny, pop, groovy, hippies, playful, loopy, etc. Likewise, each glyph will work well on creative projects, such as games, posters, videos, post templates, magazines, ad branding, layout designs, brochures, and more.
A retro display font of serif classification, Chole offers an exceptional retro font inspired by various trends or sources, ranging from the 60s to mostly the 80s. It offers glyphs with unique shapes that generate a casual and groovy look, making it highly ideal for comic designs, movie posters, product packaging, or illustrations.
The pack features standard characters, numbers, punctuations, and West Europe’s accented characters, all in OTF and TTF file formats.
Soeraja is a handwritten serif retro font. You will instantly fall in love with this font – a unique marriage product of handwriting art personal touch and classic charm of serif style, enfolded in an exquisite retro feel.
Bringing back a timeless elegance, this font instantly conveys a memorable ambiance even from the very first impression. You can apply this typeface for any creative works like book covers, greetings, headlines, posters, advertising, and others.
A retro bold script font, Haverlly Switch grabs audiences’ attention through its old American traditional style. There is also a festive feature of modern vintage-retro font style in combination.
Despite numerous ligatures, the letters have smooth and neat connections that not only make them appealing but also easily readable. You can use this font if you want to have a distinct hand-lettering typography.
Looking at the above list, nothing speaks of retro as serif fonts do. It is not surprising since they are old-style typography that still survives and is in trend even in the digital era. The prominent characteristics are the additional strokes at the end of the swashes of each letter, improved readability, and a fabulous look.
Retro font style plays a significant role in the world of design by invoking a sense of nostalgia and emotional appeal and creating a distinct brand identity. They also increasingly become trends in modern design since the current designers frequently turn to the past to look for inspiration and seek authenticity and exceptionality.
