Echelon
Barnbrook · Barnbrook
A revival of 1970s Eastern European pipe-style lettering, named after the classified international surveillance network.
About
Drawn from the peculiar strand of Communist consumer typography that flourished in Eastern Europe during the 1970s, Echelon has letterforms that share historical roots with Western type yet carry their own distinctly strange fashionable-unfashionable character. The name references the classified government surveillance network said to monitor satellite communications, bank accounts and private correspondence worldwide. Barnbrook frames the parallel between Soviet-era surveillance and contemporary Western intelligence practices as central to the typeface's identity.
Classification
Based on 1970s Eastern European 'pipe-style' lettering with a deliberately stylised, fashion-inflected aesthetic rooted in Communist consumer typography; clearly a display face rather than text.