Playing a significant role in today’s design, retro font style helps creative designs have an aesthetic, personality, connection, and, more importantly, feelings of nostalgia. No wonder that numerous brands have employed this nostalgic aspect in their product designs to appeal to their targeted customers.
These old-school typefaces are easily distinguishable and recognizable since they have merged into many cultures. It means that if someone sees a particular retro font style, it will instantly bring them back to familiar cultural symbols they associate with good feelings or memories.
This article will invite you to learn more about retro fonts, the nostalgic aspect of designs, and a selection of spellbinding retro fonts to try.
As the name suggests, retro font style is a typographic style influenced specifically by the trends of the 1950s and 1970s designs. Indeed, retro fonts are usually associated with the past, for they typically have modern features with a classic look.
Contemporary but taking on vintage fonts throughout history, retro typefaces can be distinguished by their swirly handwritten scripts or blockish shapes with serifs and other decorative elements.
Despite various looks, retro fonts can create aesthetic personality and evoke a sense of history and nostalgia. Why does nostalgia matter?
Brands and their product designs have long used nostalgia – through the use of retro font style – as one of the effective strategies in appealing to their customers. Nostalgia lends the power to attract their targeted audiences, especially positively through emotion and sentimentality.
As stated by Dr. Filippo Cordaro, a University of Cologne researcher and an expert in this field, reminiscing positive memories (and experiences) will put any individual in a more positive mood that ultimately makes them feel connected with others.
Accordingly, designers employ nostalgic aspects in their creative works, hoping to appeal to audiences that long for the good old days. Nostalgia is an essential aspect of the human desire for a sense of belonging, significance, and security.
Likewise, one effective way to insert nostalgic aspects in designs is to use retro fonts. Apart from giving a sense of nostalgia and connection, a retro font style can also deliver a sense of familiarity and comfort in any creative design application.
Here are ten mesmeric retro font inspirations you can look up to.
A retro bold script font, Haverlly Switch is an eye-catching cursive typeface that combines retro style with modern vintage and the so-called American traditional font style. This font will allow you to create instant hand lettering, and a super handy Swash set of bonuses will help.
Haverlly Switch is ideally suited for designing logos, greeting cards, handwritten quotes, posters, product packaging, social media purposes, and more.
Are you looking for something classy and beautiful at the same time? Try Wolfsburg – a Roman ligature in the serif family. In more detail, it is a classic and retro serif font style that has a background philosophy to portray past times in all its “luxury and elegance.”
You can use Wolfsburg to enhance logos, product designs and branding, retro-themed creative works, T-shirts, etc.
Chole is a retro-vintage sans serif font. We can date back this groovy retro font style to the 60s trend. This font is particularly bold and rounded stills without compromising high-level legibility and versatility.
Chole is perfect for any creative design purposes related to pop art or pop culture, cartoon or comic, casual or funny and playful themes, handcrafted lettering, logos, emblems, videos, social media applications, etc.
If you want to simultaneously pursue an elegant and stylish design, English Island is among the best candidates. This retro font style is a modern ligature serif typeface that offers an attractive, unique, retro, and vintage look.
Elegant crafting, fashion or beauty design, weddings, and invitations are some of the best applications. Still, you can expand it into videos, headlines, templates, layouts, and more.
Give your design an energetic touch with this uniquely bold street-wise display font. Bustro is a brush font created with natural, quick handwritten strokes and sharp details immediately bursting with energy.
Apparat is from a retro font style, so you can employ Bustro as a clothing font for designing t-shirts, clothing lines, or hoodies, not to mention book covers, posters, titles, events, and the like.
Looking for a retro font style for tattooing? Inspired by well-known tattoo logos, Marcost is the answer. It is a unique and bold tattoo typeface in the vintage serif family. This font is also applicable for other creative design purposes, such as logos, brochures, ad branding, templates, videos, etc.
Let’s return to the 70s trend by applying Roberto in your designs. It is a vintage slab serif font with an instant artistic and classic flair. This font is great, especially for embellishing craft and cultural heritage.
Retro and minimalist? Morvino Groowing is a lovely display monoline font you can try. This typeface is a fun, rounded typographic style, making it suitable for any design related to a kid or baby necessities, book covers, and more.
Huberto Street is another compelling option for a retro-styled display brush font. Crafted in full, natural strokes, this font radiates immediate energy. Its high readability level also makes it ideal for various creative design purposes.
Belong to a serif font family, Rumelaz Gekinsa is designed in a modern style with a sharp look. Despite being small in size, this delicate retro font is highly legible, making it ideal for headlines and long body text.
Choosing a particular design trend, including a retro font style, also helps to build a narrative and relay specific messages and emotions. Retro fonts, particularly through shared cultural references, bring about fond nostalgic experiences and memories to put people in a good mood and feel connected.
