8 Essential Fonts for Children of the 80s

Whether you want to retro-fy your social media profile page, give your blog a throwback look or design a rad t-shirt to sell, these fonts are essential for children of the ‘80s. When used with the proper color scheme, you can easily create a design worthy of its own Trapper Keeper.

Each of the fonts on this list are instantly recognizable and a simple way to earn some style points with your followers. They are spawned from cartoons, TV shows, and movies that defined the ‘80s and the best part about them: all of these fonts are available online for free! (I’ve personally downloaded them all.)

Just click the font name and download from the host site. Many more are available online if you don’t see your personal favorite. These, in my opinion, are the essentials:

Ruben (Fontsy.Com)

The ‘Knight Rider’ font is one of the most stylized in this list. While other logos went big and bold, this font matched the sleekness of K.I.T.T. and the pinpoint precision of Garthe Knight’s mustache.

Bttf (dafont.com)

This might be my favorite font. The arrows, “to the,” and roman numerals are all built right into the font. Plus, using all caps slants the letters to the left. Add a little perspective and you’re gonna see some serious…results.

Transformers Solid (pickafont.com)

The Transformers G1 logo is just classic, bottom line. But if you do use this font, you need to get the red/white/blue color blend pretty close to the original logo for that immediate reaction. Also check out this font to get the symbols.

Hauser (dafont.com)

A real American font if there ever was one. The red, white, and blue stripes are a little tricky, but once mastered, are the key elements to making this F.O.N.T. device travel the worldwide web.

Thundercats-Ho! (dafont.com)

This is another well-designed font. Not only do you get the upper and lower case alphabet numbers and punctuation, but it also comes with character drawings and the Thundercats & Mumm-Ra logos all built right into the font! I wonder what would happen if Panthro suddenly showed up in my work email signature block?

Goonies (dafont.com)

It’s very easy to create the “Never Say Die!” attitude with this font. Not a lot of extras except for the skull, but the simplicity of this black/white logo makes it great.

Broadway (standard font)

Most computers come with the Broadway font pre-installed. As you can see, it’s what was used for the logo in the Miami Vice intro. All you need to do is add water and a little neon drop shadow.

Stencil (standard font)

Another font that’s readily available is the Stencil font. Use it and a few bullet holes to create a logo that B.A. Baracus would be proud of.

If anyone is interested in what I used to create these logos, I have Corel Paint Shop Pro XI. I had PSP 7 on my cpu at work and made a $10 investment on eBay to purchase XI for my home cpu. I’m never one to buy the latest and greatest software mainly because I’m not a professional graphic designer. But as you can see above, adding a little ‘80s flair to your blog or website is simply a matter of finding the correct font and getting comfortable with a basic photo-editing program.

Jason Gross (@SockOfFleagulls) is the creator of Rediscover the 80s and loves to subject his two sons to cartoons, TV, movies, and music from the decade. Currently promoting a M.A.S.K. live-action movie script (co-writer), he enjoys freelance writing about 80s music & pop culture.