Like most people, we appreciate how time tends to ease the stinging, embarrassing moments of our lives. Deep emotional scaring and devastating personal cataclysms are a bit harder to shake, but we take comfort in the fact that minor indiscretions and lapses in good judgement always seem to float away after a few years.

Mistakes and regrets must be acknowledged and learned from. Once you’ve made your peace with them, move on. Don’t look back. All you’ll find is hurt.

Much the same can be said of our nostalgic view of the last few decades. For example, almost everybody knows about shoulder pads, but what about and parachute pants? While not as iconic, they certainly contributed to the cultural fabric of the 1980s.

But do either of those items have the timeless quality? Are either able to come back as a legitimate trend, not just a throwback, meant to invoke a sense of nostalgia? Probably not.

Graphic design has experienced a wave of nostalgia in recent years, and even though thin, Avant Garde-like typefaces and retro sign painter lettering may be fleeting, there are some design trends that will never walk the earth again. So, before we close the tomb forever, lets briefly exhume the corpses of 5 trends that will very likely stay dead.

1. Quicksilver Typeface (80s)

Oh, 80s—you and your neon lighting. Seems like we couldn’t go anywhere without seeing a healthy dose of rarified gases ignited by an electrical current, tinted in a pastel hue.

This obsession extended to the print world, where artists created lettering resembling the neon you could find in any self-respecting South Beach nightclub. But for those without the time, patience, or skill to hand draw and airbrush a neon effect, there was Quicksilver.

While the custom neon look has made a comeback (more stylized than ever) this low-rent version is forever stuck in the “Me Decade.”

2. Ray Gun (90s)

First published in 1992, Ray Gun magazine was as well known for its content as it was its unique take on typography. Sometimes abstract, sometimes unreadable, sometimes totally obscured—art director David Carson pushed the limits of type, oftentimes walking right past them. Although Ray Gun inspired the widely-used “grunge type” aesthetic, duplicating Carson’s style effectively is impossible. His work was pure art, and any facsimile would lack the soul of the original. And for that reason, we will never see anything like it again.

3. Holographic Printing (80s and 90s)

In 1984, National Geographic became the first publication to feature a printed hologram on its cover. Four years later, they made the entire cover of their centennial issue a hologram. As the comic book industry at the time shifted from “kids” to “collectors,” holographic printing and foil cover gimmicks were employed to make issues more “collectable.” Besides being somewhat expensive to print, the “gee whiz” effect of printed hologram technology has largely subsided, leaving this trend in the rearview.

4. E-13B typeface (70s and 80s)

If a movie made in 70s or early 80s was set in the future, it probably used this almost impossible-to-read typeface, notably in the 1975 film Rollerball. The future as represented in Rollerball is not only dystopian, but also horrifyingly monotypic. However, they had it way off. It should have been Arial.

E-13B and its derivatives—Moore Computer, Data 70 and Orbit-B—were representative of a future as seen by sci-fi creators entering the last quarter of the 20th century. But as we move forward, our view of the future changes, (for example, we still don’t have hoverboards) rendering those past perceptions products of their own time. E-13B is now relegated to throwback-status, a reminder of what we, at one point, saw ourselves becoming.

5. “Disco Text” (70s)

Disco followed the road of excess—not to the palace of wisdom, but to an early and much-welcomed grave. Big sound, big lights, big clubs. Optical effects and skillful airbrushing allowed artists at the time to recreate that vibe on the printed page. Disco will always be associated with the 1970s, no matter how hard bands like Dee-Lite and Jamiroquai try to bring Studio54 cool back. This style is dead as…dead as…dead as…

Agree or disagree? Have a trend to add? Let us know in the comments!