Gen X Soft Club vs The Face
ジェネレーションX ソフトクラブ / ザ・フェイス
Gen X Soft Club comes from Digital Retro and The Face from Publishing and Editing. They are reached for with different intent, which is the fastest way to tell them apart.
Gen X Soft Club
Paints vague hope for the future in the teal glow bleeding through club darkness.
The Face
Redraws its headline letters and section marks issue by issue, then sets them into a page of heavy rules and black bars with the same weight as the photographs.
| Gen X Soft Club | The Face | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | late 1990s | 1980s |
| Family | Digital Retro | Publishing and Editing |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Teal / Blurred light / Translucency / Abstract 3D | Extra bold headline letters drawn on geometry / Heavy rules and black bars dividing the page / Section marks that change shape issue by issue / Large type laid over the photograph |
| Best used for | Nocturnal softness for music and fashion · A calmer retro-future than Y2K | Music and fashion magazines where the type is meant to carry as much of the page as the photographs · Publishing where the headline letters are redrawn issue by issue and the change is shown to the reader |
| Type | Thin extended or monospace faces | Draw the headline weight from geometry as extra bold, and hold the text in a small sans |
| Composition | Float elements at low contrast | Divide the page with heavy rules and black bars, and lay large type over the photograph |
| Material | Blue, green, black, lens blur | Keep a set of section marks that change shape each issue, working in black areas and reversed white |
| Caution | Blur alone erases the contours. Keep the title or a structural line hard. | When redrawing the letterforms every issue becomes the aim in itself, the marks stop working as signposts for the reader and every issue looks equally loud. |