The British graphic designer and type designer Neville Brody was the art director of the British magazine The Face from 1983 to 1987. His Industria typeface was created at that time and was used for headings in the magazine from 1984. The authoritarian austerity of the typographic design evoked associative parallels between the social climate of the 1930s and the 1980s. The latter decade was primarily defined by the prime ministership of Margaret Thatcher.

In 1990 Linotype launched three digitalised typefaces from Neville Brody, one of which was Industria. It is a geometric typeface with rounded edges, suitable especially for newspapers, magazines and headings. In 1909 there was an advertising sans-serif with the same name produced by the Emil Gursch Type Foundry. Among other uses, Industria is used for the logo of the NBA basketball team Oklahoma City Thunder, the Austrian football club FC Red Bull Salzburg  and the popular computer game SinCity2000.