by @HeadGrim The person in charge of the Nostromo set, from Alien (1979), was a former serviceman who had an idea that every label on the ship has to have a clear meaning and purpose; he thus invented this interstellar standard for signs and labels in commercial spaceflight. via r/RetroFuturism
That was the amazing Ron Cobb! Unfortunately, he passed away in September, 2020…
He worked on Jodorowsky’s Dune, designed many of the aliens in the original Star Wars, worked on Indiana Jones, the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy tv series, Conan the Barbarian, Aliens, and so much more!
There’s a great nerdy deep dive on both the semiotic iconagraphy in Alien that he created, along with the fonts used, right here: https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/12/01/alien/
Like Syd Mead, his fingerprints are all over a lot of the aesthetics of what we default think of as science fiction, especially in space.
