Grunge

Grunge emerged in Seattle in the 80's and 90's. The grunge was appeared in music first and popularized by alternative rock bands such as Nirvana. From music it spreads to fashion and graphic design. It was inspired by Punk/Heavy Metal/Indie Rock. The fashion of this style included acid-washed pants, long hair on both sexes, and the usual leather jacked with the randomly places band names. A lot of things comes from punk to this style, with their anarchist behavior, rebellion to the clothing.

Things were messy then, from the skateboard to graffiti and toe rings and VHS tapes. So the design was messy too. Words were splayed and chaotic, letters blurred. Textures thick and heavy.Concert posters looked like someone had splattered paint on paper and then scratched out band names. The typography of that time is called grunge and later it became the largest, most cohesive movement in recent font design history. First you could see it everywhere, but that it wasn't anymore.

Like the many other things of the 90's, grunge typography was rooted in angst and discontent. It came in backlash, the same like the punk came in. Aesthetic fueled by a raw emotion. The grunge popularity was coincided with Macintosh. The designers had an opportunity to change the hand drawing and working by computer work. It was some kind of liberation for him. All of the designers rejected the rule-based fonts of their forebears. It had never seen before.

References:

The Rise And Fall Of Grunge Typography - The Awl. 2014. The Rise And Fall Of Grunge Typography - The Awl. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.theawl.com/2012/08/grunge-typography. [Accessed 18 January 2014].