Designing the Transport Typeface(thamesandhudson.com)
thamesandhudson.com
Designing the Transport Typeface
https://www.thamesandhudson.com/blogs/all-news-features/designing-the-transport-typeface-margaret-calvert-on-the-making-of-britain-s-road-signs
7 comments
James May did a car "review" with Margaret Calvert years back in an episode of Top Gear. Was a bit of a departure from regular Top Gear but certainly interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTDB3dpe3eg
This is bloody brilliant. Classic Top Gear. Thank you.
I love Transport and it absolutely evokes Britishness for me whenever I see it. The "Highway Gothic" [1] font used on US Interstate highways (and apparently also in Australia and Canada) is also pretty good I think and similarly evokes the open road in my mind.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Gothic
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Gothic
as used on gov.uk
https://brand.design-system.service.gov.uk/typography/
https://brand.design-system.service.gov.uk/typography/
These signs and the typeface are my gold standard. I've traveled to dozens of countries, and I still think the British signage is the cleanest and clearest in the world.
Quite often temporary roadworks signage uses something "off brand" like Helvetica, and I actually want to deliberately break the temporary speed limit out of spite.
I've found transport typography and design great to integrate into my ui designs. They're so universal and have accessibility built in it's great!