Sci-fi’s Spacey Impact on Graphic Design

FastCoDesign asks a Swiss science fiction historian and writer named Patrick Gyger to take us on a ride through the history of science fiction and trace the trajectory of design, and boy is it a wild one!  Gyger is the curator of “Into the Unknown: A Journey Through Science Fiction,” the latest show at London’s Bartbican Centre.

“The aesthetics [of science fiction] have changed over the years because of the ways that we create things,” Gyger says. As a result, the graphic design aesthetic has evolved right along with the sci-fi genre. Each decade managing to stretch the limits of what can be done on film and other digital media.

Gyger discusses about how sci-fi writers in the 19th century were fascinated with the discovery of lost worlds, and how those stories influenced a legendary filmmaker and special-effects creator whose own innovations led the way for the special effects of films like “Star Wars” and “Jurassic Park.”

In the early- to mid-20th century, science fiction shifted to dreams of space, leading up to the Space Race of the 1950s and ’60s. The fascination with space dovetailed into corporate graphic design hitting its heyday with “Mad Men”-era advertising. Even architecture wasn’t spared the space facelift as radical shapes and structures began to be built.

The journey continues with several more sci-fi examples leading up to present day. It’s a fun dive into how an entire genre was able to influence graphic design and expand the imagination of creative minds of the past, present and future.