To me, this did not really bring to light any obvious rules for 'retro' typography. Honestly, the main thing that stood out to me is the surrounding of the type - the textures (e.g. crumbled paper, "destroyed" effects, discreet gradients) and the colours - typically muted, minimal etc.
So I decided to look further into what makes a font 'retro'.
I looked at this article: http://www.productivedreams.com/what-makes-a-design-retro-vintage/
Whilst it had a very small part on typography, what it said did help.
"Designers of the retro eras used simple techniques like repositioning of fonts, duplicating and pixel strokes for adding unique flavour to a design."
There are no specifics on the actual look of the font though, simply how you can manipulate a font to help it fit in within a retro design.
Graphic Designer Bruno Nakano from Madrid, has some of his work on Behance.net, and one of his projects has inspired me. It's listed under 'retro', and the way he has used typography on his posters reminds me of newspapers and has given me an idea of the sorts of fonts I could use in my design.
I then read an article on line25.com - '30 web designs featuring vintage style typography'.
"Like many, my favourite aspect of vintage design is the elegance of classic typography with its mix of cursive & sans-serif typefaces, clever layouts and the combination of textures and illustrations to relate to the techniques used throughout the early 20th century."
Through looking at a lot of examples of what is considered 'retro' type, I can see the point the writer is making. None of the fonts I have seen in my research have been particularly 'out there' - like below.
They are more "classic" fonts. By this I mean they are the sorts of fonts that are easily relatable to past 'era's' - if you were doing a comic book design in a retro style, you'd choose a very classic comic style font that everyone recognises as 'the comic book font', rather than a newer, adapted version.
The sorts of fonts I've seen most in my search for "retro typography" are similar to the below.
Designers of retro work seem to then try to make these fonts look as if they were taken straight out of the era they're trying to portray. They'll do this through a very strong colour scheme and by adding effects like drop shadows, strokes and textures, as well as sometimes surrounding the text with imagery that enhances the feeling of the era they're trying to portray.
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