I found a link this afternoon over lunch detailing the murky history of typography in the Toronto subway system, which was fascinating reading for a usability and typography geek like myself. Overshadowed by more famous and visible signage programs (New York and London), Toronto’s signage deserves the same amount of praise for its timeless design and craftsmanlike execution. Toronto’s original stations were finished with white tile, and custom-designed letterforms were sandblasted and then painted into the walls, in contrast to New York’s intricate mosaicwork. An interesting side note: the typographer responsible for the family design is uncredited and therefore unknown, as the designs were never signed. (see: Johnston, the famous typeface used in the London system).
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Tunnel Typography.
Like its larger sister cities, the signage system has found itself ignored and overlooked by bureaucrats and politicians, who find hand-lettered placards and lousy Helvetica-based additions perfectly acceptable substitutions for standards-based design. The author of the article describes an study commissioned to redesign all of the signage in the early 1990s at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars, which was then unceremoniously shelved by the Toronto Train Commission. Instead, for a new expansion built soon afterwards, the TTC used a knockoff of the Unimark/Noorda signage made famous in New York City, further fragmenting the unified look of each station.
Equal parts politics, art history, typography, and architecture lesson, the main article is a fascinating read (as is the linked NYC Subway article—an equally worthy diversion) and an window back into the days when good design was championed by the public and politicians alike.
RSS posted by on February 5, 2010 at 10:43 pm. filed under typography history subway "New York" Toronto "Bob Noorda" unimark. permalink
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