London’s underground is the birthplace of the word metro and one of the most utilised and oldest underground railways in the world. A statement piece and a major part of the reason most people come to the largest city in the UK.
The roundels, which are used as station markers, have also become iconic, a piece of fashion and British history. They now appear on t-shirts, mugs, books, and a variety of other things too long to list. But what makes the design of these so special and who is the man behind the font?
What is the type called and why is it used?
Initially, the London Underground was a myriad of different companies running the lines under the city. Each had its own unique colour scheme and typographic identity and, as you can imagine, the more popular the Underground became the more confusing it became for customers using the lines. Particularly because, as different lines were run by competitors, they weren’t that open to promoting other companies which made it easier for customers to complete journies.
It was all eventually combined under a single operating company, thanks to Charles Yerkes, and, after being commissioned by Frank Pick, a dedicated new typographic style was created to unify the new London Underground (this was part of a much longer-running unification which included the maps, logo, and stations). The goal was to reduce confusion and mark a new era of a unified underground system which was quickly becoming one of the most used and well-known systems of the modern era.
It is now used across everything for London transport, including on trains and buses, across station buildings, and on all of the corporate identification like websites, brochures, and the infamous tube map.
The typography was designed by Edward Johnstone, who is considered to be one of the fathers of modern calligraphy, and although his most famous design is the typography for the London Underground he was an experienced designer and teacher. Edward was born in Uruguay and studied at the University of Edinburgh. After finishing his studies he taught at schools across London, including the Royal College of Art, where he inspired future type designer Eric Gill.
Why Johnstone and what made it so great?
Johnstone was good at what he did, he was an influencer before it was cool and knew exactly what would work in the London Underground. For something with such a heavy footfall and barely any time to stop and read things, you need to design something simple and understandable when read at a quick pace. This is what made his choice of a sans-serif so important. These typography sets have no side flourishes, nothing to confuse the user, and are easy to read when you are running from train to train or late to an important meeting, I think he knew how important modern transport would be to a 21st century London city.
Many assume that typography and fonts are there to give us a bit of personalisation, something to show our uniqueness to an audience, and some only use the basics of Times New Roman and Calibri. But I think there’s more to it than that, with typography being all around us, we need to ensure that the designs we use and the associated typography is suited for the location it is within. For example, you wouldn’t use Comic Sans in a cease and desist letter, as much as you wouldn’t use a formal font, such as Helvetica, to invite people to your child’s birthday party.
This is what makes the choice of design so great and why it has been picked up and loved by so many. The roundels are an iconic part of the image of London, yes, but the font within those roundels, the tube map, and the stations, are just as important to the love of such a design. Johnstone was picked because he saw the importance of simplicity and how typography can be used to guide us easily to our destinations and the work he did to introduce this new style was visionary.
The success of this typography is evident, much like Helvetica, it has become so well used that it has just become part of British society, we don’t think of it twice and to me, that is a key sign of a good font. Over utilising a design is a testament to how good it is, no matter how much it may annoy some people, and I think it’s clear that Johnstone must have known this. It is also very rare to get a font that people really like enough to have not much bad press about it, Comic Sans for example has had much hatred around its use for years, Helvetica is getting the same for overuse, and Trajan which was used on many film posters has had the same treatment with people making videos of its utilisation.
That’s what makes this font great; it’s designed perfectly for its requirements, it’s loved by many, and overused without getting dry or annoying.
Further watching if this interests you…
Just as I was finishing writing this blog post, I was recommended a video by the always brilliant Jay Foreman who has various videos focusing on the different bits of Unfinished London and many other things, which is helpfully incredibly relevant to this piece. Some of the facts I have within my post come from his video so it’s worth a watch below.