Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!bmers95!bmers213.bnr.ca!ross
From: ross@bmers213.bnr.ca (Ross Brown)
Subject: Re: more on Johnson Underground
Message-ID: <1991Apr12.133700.8083@bmers95.bnr.ca>
Keywords: Gill Sans, London Metro, Toronto
Sender: usenet@bmers95.bnr.ca
Reply-To: ross@bmers213.bnr.ca (Ross Brown)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
References:  <b3qhwy.2nn@wang.com>
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 91 13:37:00 GMT

In article <b3qhwy.2nn@wang.com>, wdr@wang.com (William Ricker) writes:
|> 
|> > From: td@research.att.com
|> 
|> > (Mike Hawley 9mike@tome.media.mit.edu forwarded your message about Johnson
|> > and Gill Sans to me.)
|> 
|> > Johnson's Underground face (usu. just called `Johnson' by people I've
|> > talked to) is also used in the Toronto subway for station names and on
|> > some signs.  Many other TTC signs use Helvetica.  I wish they wouldn't
|> > do that, but I suspect that they hired a decent typographical consultant
|> > when the subway was built (1952), and have had Ontario College of Art
|> > (the local commercial-art school) interns do all of their signage ever
|> > after.  In isolation, Helvetica looks merely ill-proportioned and ugly.
|> > In the same room with Johnson, it makes me want to run screaming from
|> > the premises.
|> 
|>    From wdr Thu Apr 11 [me]
|>    In-Reply-To:  [the above]
|> 
|> Argh! mixing Johnson Underground & Helvetica?   That might not look
|> as bad as mixing, say, Optima with Franklin Gothic, but I don't
|> recall seeing anyone do *that*.

Before we get all hot about the TTC, which I've used often, let me straighten
this out:  The original TTC face is not Johnston Underground, and the new one
is not Helvetica.  The original is one I have not seen used elsewhere, but it's
pretty typical of 1930-1960 sign alphabets - low crossbars on caps (E, P, R),
letter forms composed entirely of straight lines and circular arcs.  The new
face is standard Univers.  The mixture is odd, especially since they seem to be
reverting to the old face on the old lines.

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Ross Brown, Dept. 7D76  < Bell-Northern Research     >  Just the facts, ma'am.
ross@bnr.ca             < P. O. Box 3511, Station C  >  We don't care whose
awol@awol.on.can.na     < Ottawa, ON, Canada K1Y 4H7 >  opinions yours aren't.
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