Johnston (typeface)

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Sample

Johnston printing blocks

A London Underground map with text in the New Johnston typeface.

Johnston (or Johnston Sans) is a sans serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. The capitals of the typeface are based on Roman 'square capitals', and the lower-case on the 'humanistic minuscule', the handwriting in use in Italy in the fifteenth century. In this, it marked a break with the kinds of sans serif previously used, sometimes known as 'Grotesque' which tended to have squarer shapes.

The typeface was commissioned in 1913 by Frank Pick, Commercial Manager of the London Electric Railway Company (also known as 'The Underground Group'), as part of his plan to strengthen the company's corporate identity. In 1933, The Underground Group become a major part of London Transport and the typeface was adopted for the complete network.

Its use has included the Tube map, name plates and general station signing, as well as much of the printed material issued by the Underground Group and its successors. Features of the font are the perfect circle of the letter O and the use of a diamond-shaped dot above minuscule letters i and j and for the full stop. Commas, apostrophes and other punctuation marks are also based on the diamond-shaped dot.

[edit] Adaptations

Johnston's former student Eric Gill also worked on the development of the typeface, and the design was later to influence his Gill Sans typeface, produced 1928–1932.

Frank Pick later commissioned Percy Delf Smith (another former pupil) to draw up a 'petit-serif' adaptation of the typeface, originally for the headquarters building at 55 Broadway, SW1. It can still be seen on some signs at Sudbury Town and Arnos Grove on the Piccadilly line.

The Johnston typeface was redesigned in 1979 by Eiichi Kono at Banks & Miles to produce New Johnston, the variant of the original font currently used by London Underground. The new font is slightly heavier or bolder than the original.