Interstate (typeface)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Typeface | Interstate |
|---|---|
| Category | Sans-serif |
| Classifications | Neo-grotesque |
| Designer(s) | Tobias Frere-Jones |
| Foundry | Font Bureau |
Interstate is a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in the period 1993–1999, and licensed by Font Bureau. The typeface is closely related to the FHWA Series fonts, a signage alphabet drawn for the United States Federal Highway Administration in 1949.
Frere-Jones' Interstate face, while optimal for signage, has refinements making it suitable for text setting in print and on-screen, and gained popularity as such in the 90s. Due to its wide spacing it is best suited for display usage in print, but Frere-Jones later designed another signage typeface, Whitney, published by Hoefler & Frere-Jones, which bears a resemblance to its ancestor while being less flamboyant and more economical for general print usage, in body copy or headlines.
The terminals of ascending and descending strokes are cut at an angle to the stroke (see lowercase t, and l), and on curved strokes (see lowercase e and s), terminals are drawn at a 90° angle to the stroke, positioning them at an angle to the baseline. Counters are open, even in the bold and bold condensed weights, further contributing to legibility.
The font is used by Sainsbury's Supermarkets, the rail company c2c, and Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College in the United Kingdom.
Cognizant Technology Solutions based out of New Jersey, United States also use this typeface for their logotype and branding collaterals.
[edit] References
- Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
- Haley, Allen. Type: Hot Designers Make Cool Fonts. Rockport Publishers Inc, Gloucester; 1998. ISBN 1-56496-317-9
- Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.
