This July, Transport for London (TfL) will roll out a redesign to Johnston, the typeface that's decorated the London Underground since 1916. The newest iteration is called Johnston100. Designed by type foundry Monotype, it's the first update to the typeface since the late 1970s, when it was adjusted for new typesetting technology. It's meant to do two things: (1) Update Johnston so that it's as legible as possible on screens and (2) Bring back some of the "soul" and "quirk" from the original 1916 design. Off-kilter details like the diagonal bowl on the lowercase ‘g' and the unusually wide 'U' were lost over the years, but have been reintroduced in Johnston100.
TfL, the governing body for all things Underground-related, has used Johnston since 1916. Johnston is a friendly, sensible, sans serif typeface that was totally ahead of its time. A calligrapher created it, but its looks are unembellished. That's largely how it endured all these years; its uncluttered proportions were ideal for a typeface that lives in a frantic, schedule-driven environment like the London Underground.
Endure it did, but as prescient as Edward Johnston was about type design, it's not like he predicted that one day travelers would check train schedules primarily through an app. The other new elements of Johnston100 exist purely to make the typeface internet-appropriate—like the @ and # characters. The original Johnston never had, or needed, those icons. Slapdash ones were added in recent years, but Monotype has carefully redrawn them to fit in with the rest of the font family. This is one way TfL is modernizing its signage; the other is through the five new weights of Johnston100. In its original weight, Johnston would be far too thick to read on a smartphone screen. The new "thin" and "hairline" weights, however, are much more pixel-friendly. That's a crucial update for users: 100 years after Johnston was born, the London Underground doesn't exist solely underground. It's on desktop browsers, touch screens, and in travelers's pockets.
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