Probably because it's a generally available font that's heavy enough to act as a scratch pad for people to scribble on, re-fill, etc.

Ya, what HVB says seems bang on. Impact also has a powerful condensed tension.

Interesting to note that Impact is gaining traction in the hip hop rapper scene ...ungrunged.

n.

That would be a nice compilation. If only Typophile had some tool to manage visuals a little better.
Listgeeks lacks images too. Tumblr isn't good for browsing through entries... Anyone can suggest a tool for the task?

Nice stuffs!

The last time I did a grunge graphic was wayyyyy back in '07 for farm aid. After that I kinda got ungrunged.

Wayyyyy back in long time I did a tutorial on how-to distress a letter shape ...I wonder if I can find it. The coolio part of my technique was that it could distress the letter shapes within a textural context. I'll try to dig it ...prolly on a long time back CD somewhere under dust by now...

n.

What would be really awesome would be to have a font with a choice of distresses built in as options. Within a single font the user could choose a distress paint or concrete or liquid etc..

I know for a long time now that there is are awesome PS plug-ins but I'm not talking about distressing an overall graphic. What I would like to use is a distressed font as editable type. Of course you could always create an Action to be applied to the font ...but that's still not what I want to achieve.

This idea needs more thought ...more coffee!

n.

outline "borrowing"

???

MM fonts sound interesting in their flexibilities.

n.

I'm curious why the letters in "rv" and "iv" are touching each other. In my Impact they don't.

@ahyangyi – Possibly they were kerned to overlap.

@5star – See @Renaissance_Man's text art upstream.

BTW the amount of outline "borrowing" in many of the examples in this thread bothers me.

But if Impact was originated in a 50 year old Disney movie, you would have been cool with it though right?

You like reading pornographic novels?

BTW the amount of outline "borrowing" in many of the examples in this thread bothers me.

But it is unlikely to have been “point piracy”.
AFAIK, the usual manner of creating a distressed font is to set text, distress it, then autotrace a bitmapped image of the result.
Are many of the fonts referred to here entirely vector-produced?
In that case, they may not be legal.

Is copying another piece of lettering as a font really OK as long as it it's not an exact digital copy, or as long as it's over 50 years old?

It really depends on your motivation. In the case of digitizing an older typeface or lettering sample, if no other exists and you are open about your sources and motivation (assuming you plan to make it available publically or commercially) and if done well then it can often be a useful excercise and of benefit to people.

Personally, I think "grunge" is not such a good term.
If a typeface is altered, as to indicate some effect, there may be various design motivations: "grunge" tells nothing about the design at hand.

Hi Nick,
I am aware of the tendency of calling those "altered" type designs "distressed". It‘s just that I never felt comfortable with both english terms ("grunge" and "distressed"). I never felt at home with the general attitude most english-speaking and dutch designers were using during the early 1990s avant-gardes which let to lettering and type experimentation, because they weren’t related to my personal experiences.
Th biggest problem I have is that "distressed" implies an association with inner feelings which are not necessarily the ones fueling the inspiration.
The reasons may be varied as much as the reasons which prompt to do a new take or experiment on established typographic categories, so the definition should reflect that, without implying certain emotional states or feelings.
Of course, there was a sense of anguish and disorientation in the mid-1990s, for young people which were getting older in that period, but this wasn’t the only (or the main) element of inspiration for producing “distressed” type. Another silly term was “egyptian” but luckily it’s mostly gone… :-)

Claudio, I’ve never considered Distressed to mean an emotional state, when applied to type.
Before its use to describe a genre of type, I was already familiar with its long-standing meaning as applied to antiques (furniture etc.) and pseudo-antiques: “Intentionally marred or faded to convey an antique or used look”.
Also, I don’t believe that types have inherent emotional qualities.
Therefore, to use an existing craft manufacturing term to describe a style of type seemed quite straightforward, especially as the design process is one where a perfect shape is corrupted, tainted, or marred.

Grunge has a broader meaning, as it quite often refers to what has never been anywhere near perfection.
Typeface: Amoeba, or anything roughly hand-made.

Deconstruction was another mid-90s method, typically involving a mash-up of contrasting styles.
Typeface: Fudoni, Dead History, Keedy Sans.

All these three terms describe things that are less-than-perfect, but in quite different ways.

What are the words for “distressed”, meaning the antiquing of furniture, in other languages?

Hi Nick, thanks for the explanation.
So it’s just my bad english, once again? LOL

"Distressed", if I get the meaning applied to furniture, in italian should be "anticato" (i.e. "made antique"). Was that the meaning to which you referred?

While I agree on "destructural" (but I preferred "post-structural", as once you "destructured" you must have "reconstructed" to some degree, to obtain something which more or less works), I still think "grunge" is a bit "anything goes" kind of term. I quite liked Jens' Amoeba, and never thought of it as "grunge". Rather I thought it was ingenious, as the idea of parts "washed away" was incorporated into the design. A different approach than, say, the one by Barry Deck.

@mikougnie: Your post has nothing to do with the topic at hand: there is a specific section here on the forums for type identification requests. :-)

"Distressed", if I get the meaning applied to furniture, in italian should be "anticato" (i.e. "made antique"). Was that the meaning to which you referred?

Yes. The faux patina of age.

Isn't the typeface Veneer one of the more popular recent releases in vintage/grunge/distressness?

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/yellow-design/veneer/

In its marketing description both grunge and distress seem almost interchangeable.

n.

Nick said, "I don’t believe that types have inherent emotional qualities."

Of course neither metal or or machine code don't. But surely you believe that types convey emotional qualities, don't you?

Typefaces most certainly do have inherent emotional qualities (even though those don't always manifest) because they're made of shapes, and humans are physical creatures in a physical world.

hhp