What are timeless fonts? If any truly exist, what do they look like? When were they designed, and is it even possible to create a list of genuinely timeless fonts? None of us live in a bubble, and over the years, font design has both created and followed trends, as well as feeding off aspects of the wider visual culture. In addition to this, font styles have been heavily affected by the technology used to create the letterforms themselves.
When attempting to identify font styles, we must understand their original context, which will provide most of the information we need. It is also worth considering not only of the font design itself, but also the way we are using it, as some fonts can elicit different connotations depending on the way they are used. For example, Gill Sans is still enormously popular, and deservedly so; clear and legible without too much personality – but if used for a headline in very large caps it can be reminiscent of British print from around the second world war; a mood you may not wish to convey.
To be ‘timeless’, a font would have to explicitly be not stylistically representative of its time (or indeed, any other era), so the fonts listed here are selected on that basis. Let’s have a look at a few recognisable eras, consider their typical font designs, and see if the period produced anything a little closer to timeless font design.
The early 20th Century
The first decades of the century saw art and design movements which have left us with some classic font designs. Many of the digital fonts in use today were made relatively recently, but based on typographic designs of the period. Continuing industrialisation meant some truly classic timeless fonts were created at this time too.
Typical early C20th fonts include:
Eckmann (Arts & Crafts style)
Davida, Arnold Bocklin (Art Nouveau style)
NeutraFace, Bifur, Le Film (Art Deco style)
Futura (Bauhaus/Modernist style)
More timeless early C20th fonts include:
Franklin Gothic, News Gothic, Futura, Goudy Old Style, Times New Roman, Plantin.
The 1970s
An era with a very strong style; hippie culture, glam rock, disco and punk were all features of this period. Care needs to be taken when using type typical of this era. There are some designs that are still widely used today (Herb Lubalin’s Avant Garde for example), but the most representative styles are so strong that they are probably best used ironically or for fun.
Typical 1970s fonts include:
Sinaloa, Octopus, Quicksilver, Lazybones, shatter, Harlow, Pump Triline, Frankfurter Solid.
More timeless 1970s fonts include:
Avant Garde, Frutiger, Serif Gothic, ITC Bookman.
The 1980s
The explosion of digital desktop technology during the 80s led to a period of enormous creative freedom in the world of typographic design. The technology was far too expensive for the general public, but professional designers, freed from the constraints of older technology could really let their creative imaginations run wild.
And run wild they did. The 80s were responsible for what is arguably some of the ugliest design, style and fashion in history, and although typographic design enjoyed a revolution, a lot of the resulting designs are now memorable for the wrong reasons. Neville Brody, an enormously important figure in typographic history, and one of the true pioneers of desktop publishing magazine layout & type design, was responsible for (what are now) some quite ugly – yet iconic – font designs.
Typical 1980s fonts include:
Typeface Four One, Typeface Two, Typeface Three, Typeface Six, vegas, Van Dijk, Mastercard, Chromium One.
More timeless 1980s fonts include:
Today Sans, Avenir, Rotis, Arial.
The 1990s
The decade began by continuing experimentalism of the 80s, but the precise, gridded nature of computerised design (among other things) led to a backlash. In conjunction with the developing grunge music and style, much of popular design became chaotic and deliberately ‘rule breaking’ in a style brought to the fore by David Carson and his Raygun surf magazine. As a result, page layout was as probably a bigger design factor than font style, although there are some font designs which typify 1990s style.
Typical 1990s fonts include:
Mason Sans, Bastard, Exocet, Dead History, Template Gothic, Dogma, False Idol.
More timeless 1990s fonts include:
Meta, FF Dax, FF Sari, Thesis, Scala, Interstate, FF Balance.
Beyond 2000
Moving beyond the millenium, font styles are less strongly representative of their era. Diluted by competition, typographic trends still exist, but are only consciously noticed by those who are interested. As a result, it would be difficult to suggest fonts designed since 2000 which are also typical of this period. That said, as I write, the Museo family is still very popular indeed, so when its popularity wanes it may well become a reminder – albeit a subtle one – of current visual trends.
Typical 2000s fonts include:
Soho, Soho Gothic, Neo Sans, Gotham, FS Me, FS Lola, Stag/Sans, Guardian Egyptian/Sans, Museo.
By and large, fonts from before the mid 1990s tend to be more tied to their era. Later designs arrived in a more varied artistic and cultural environment (see our postmodernism article for some background), and are less dominant due to the enormous volume of competition and the growth of mass media.
In summary then, as a general rule of thumb, the less ‘personality’ a font has, the less likely it is to be strongly reminiscent of a specific time. The risk in following this mantra strictly is that, as with people, type with less personality can be boring and so not engage with the audience. If you were able to ask them all, most designers would probably say Helvetica is their ‘neutral’ font of choice – and I would agree. I hope this list has brought up a few new names for you to check out amongst those well known classics.