Bubble fonts are back! But is the hype around them about to pop?

Born on the streets of New York in the 1960s and 70s, bubble writing is now back in business. Global brands and indie makers are all over the bubble text look, but is this design trend bound to pop?

Get ready to explore the origins of bubble fonts and their modern-day applications. We’ll examine why they resonate so strongly with today’s audiences and whether they’re here to stay. So grab your favorite marker (or fire up your design software) and dive headfirst into the wonderful world of bubble fonts! 

Bubble fonts and bubble writing—the colorful balloon-like letters that look like they’re about to burst—are everywhere right now. This playful font has been embraced by communities worldwide in branding and logos, jewelry design, drag posters, and sweet shops.

The bubble font phenomenon started on the streets of New York 50 years ago. And amazingly, the handwriting style can all be traced back to one man: Phase Two.

Phase Two, also known as Lonny Wood, was a hip-hop pioneer, a legendary aerosol artist, and the founding father of bubble writing. In 1972, he started tagging his name in spray paint across the Bronx in a curved bubble style that he called ‘softies’. His graffiti bubble letters were enormous, expressive, and eye-catching. His designs imitated light bouncing off the letters, giving them a subtle 3D feel.

Phase 2 pioneered several different bubble styles, such as bubble cloud, phasemagorical phantastic, and bubble drip.

Inspired artists began to imitate his graffiti letter designs, and bubble graffiti soon began popping up across New York City. These old-school graffiti bubble letters flourished because they were very fast to create. In a few confident arm strokes, you could quickly write a colossal bubble letter and then be on your way.

The artists creating these designs were predominantly Black and Hispanic young people, and this graffiti bubble style (as well as graffiti more broadly) gave them a creative avenue to express themselves and come together at a time when America was experiencing substantial social unrest.

Phase 2 began designing flyers and logos for those in rap and hip-hop circles, and soon, this counterculture bubble style started to pop up in the mainstream. This bubble boom can also be connected back to the typography of the 60s with its love of curved, soft, and joyful designs.

From comics and album covers to global branding, bubble fonts quickly became trendy. For brands whose target audiences were kids and young people, the playfulness of bubble writing was the go-to. New (and now iconic) brands designed their first logos in the bubble style, such as Hubba Bubba in 1979 and Ty in 1986.

Lego, one of the biggest toy brands on the planet, redesigned its logo in 1972 to incorporate a softer, simpler bubble font—and still uses it today!

This bubble mania grew in the 1980s and 90s, with toy and confectionary brands using this marshmallow-friendly type to attract younger audiences.

This type is used in the Koosh Ball logo and the AirHeads design, as well as across kids’ TV shows, such as Rainbow Brite and the Teletubbies.

Bubble writing is so often found in teens’ notebooks and diaries (especially when writing your crush’s name) that it makes sense that this playful, dreamy font was used so widely to appeal to young audiences.

Over the 90s, the trend of the signature soft lines of bubble text became square and more angular. Could this be from the growing influence of grunge, punk, and indie music? Green Day’s 1994 album Dookie would suggest so.

The rapid development of technology also inspired sleeker, futuristic, computerized design aesthetics—the goofiness of bubble text wasn’t on trend anymore. The arrival of new design tools and platforms allowed people to create more complicated and diverse typography.

Although bubble fonts could still be found wrapped around chewing gum, on toys, and in playful logos, the bubble trend officially popped in the 1990s as a new wave of art, music, and design began to take center stage.

2024 saw something of a bubble revival: suddenly, retro bubble fonts began popping up everywhere again. From motivational social media posts to indie brand logos, this playful, cheeky font is back—but in a new style for a new era.

Today’s bubble font trend is more hyper-realistic than the original 1970s old-school graffiti type. The current trend leans heavily into a plastic, balloon-inspired aesthetic, a design style easily accessible to millions thanks to new AI tools integrated into editing platforms. It’s now easy, free, and fast to feed the robot gods a prompt and be delivered the most eyeball-massaging bubble font imaginable.

This new bubble font wave is not restricted to social media—it’s blowing up in real life, too. Many brands are releasing a range of bubble-related goods, from bubble letter jewelry to playful clothing.

We also love this playful image of the band Chai having fun with the font and painting it on their faces.

Taking it to a whole new level, the collaborative duo Designs in Air created a vast hot pink bubble font inflatable sculpture for a GCDS fashion show. There’s something conceptually delicious about this bubble-lettered collaboration.

The trend of helium-filled balloons spelling out words and often joyful phrases has been a trend for over a decade. From spelling out birthday messages to inspirational quotes, these metallic letter balloons have become an evergreen feature of mainstream pop culture. We predict they’re here to stay (although maybe it’s time for a more planet-friendly evolution of this trend). 

Like all trends, the bubble mania of bubble fonts is bound to pop sooner rather than later. However, the exception to this rule is brand logos. Brands such as White Fox, Lucy and Yak, and Errosest all have logos, including bubble fonts, which are much more likely to stand the test of time in a way that the AI-generated bubble text trend won’t.

The reason is that these logos all have a timeless quality. Yes, they all sing to the bubble font renaissance, but they’re not limited to it. These logos aren’t defined by the 2020s in a way that other bubble font iterations are. Just look at Lego, Ty, and Hubba Bubba: brand logos created during the original bubble trend that are all still going strong. 

You’ve learned the ins and outs of this feel-good trend, and now it’s your turn to get in on it. Bubble letters and aesthetics are in right now, and they’re an easy way to show off your brand’s unique personality (and to appeal to a bubble font-loving Gen Z audience).

Need some more inspo? Take our color palette quiz to determine the best colors to make your bubble-inspired designs pop, and have a look at designer Jessica Walsh’s playful mega-brilliant work. Check out our font library for all your bubble font needs, which is available as part of an Envato subscription.