The instantly recognizable red-glow title card of Netflix’s Stranger Things uses ITC Benguiat Bold Condensed, a serif typeface designed by legendary type designer Ed Benguiat in 1977. When Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer worked with the studio Imaginary Forces to build the show’s opening titles, they specifically wanted a face that echoed 1980s Stephen King paperback covers — and ITC Benguiat was already the defining typeface of that era’s horror and fantasy book jackets, which is exactly why it felt so instantly nostalgic to audiences. The production team modified the letterforms slightly to create the show’s signature locked-together title treatment, but the underlying typeface is genuine ITC Benguiat.
Its tall x-height, ornate serifs, and slightly condensed letterforms give it a design personality that sits somewhere between vintage horror and elegant editorial type — which is why it works equally well for retro branding, book covers, 1980s-themed event graphics, band posters, and Halloween or horror-adjacent design work, beyond just Stranger Things fan projects.
Font Family
ITC Benguiat comes in multiple weights and widths, several of which are relevant to fans recreating this look:
- ITC Benguiat Book
- ITC Benguiat Medium
- ITC Benguiat Bold
- ITC Benguiat Bold Condensed (closest match to the logo)
- ITC Benguiat Heavy
- ITC Benguiat Gothic (a related geometric companion face, also by Benguiat, 1979)
FAQs
ITC Benguiat is a commercial typeface licensed through Monotype/ITC — it is not free. Several free “inspired by” alternatives exist that approximate the look for personal projects, but they are not the licensed original and shouldn’t be presented as such.
For personal, non-commercial use, a free lookalike is generally fine; for anything commercial, you’d need to license ITC Benguiat properly and be mindful that “Stranger Things” itself is a Netflix trademark, so avoid implying official affiliation.
Clean sans-serifs like Avant Garde Gothic (also used in the show’s title sequence) or Futura provide good contrast for supporting text.