The movement of monster fonts grew with the rise of advertising in the 19th century. These large-scaled and bolded letters demanded immediate attention from potential consumers. They are sometimes known as  “font on steroids” because they are very in-your-face. During this time of advertising, multiple different typefaces would be used to maximize the use of letters in the negative space. Many of these were bolded and enlarged, with strong strokes and/or serifs.

The avant garde typeface movement is more modern and abstract compared to monster fonts. This movement explores negative space and geometric lines of characters (e.g. ligatures), and is often labeled as an advanced, innovative, and creative type compared to others. They can seem very modern and sometimes even futuristic. Herb Lubalin designed the Avant Garde typeface in the 1970s, originally for a magazine logo (Avant Garde Magazine) and not as a commercial typeface. Especially for its time, this typeface was considered very different compared to what the public was used to–almost alien-like because there was nothing else quite like it.