London Underground's typeface to change 'for digital age'

[caravanman]

The iconic London Underground typeface is to be updated, but considering the minor changes I hope the designers were not paid a fortune!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36525214

In other news, London's regent street was closed for a transport exhibition, old and new:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36698617

Cheers,

Ed.

 

[oregon pioneer]

Interesting, thanks!

 

[SarahZ]

I can hardly see the difference. The overlays helped with that.

I'm glad it's so similar. I'd've been sad if they'd changed it more drastically. I love the Underground logos and typeface.

 

[neroden]

The goal was actually to bring it back to the original. Over the decades, the font in use had "drifted" out of conformance with the original -- the "o" was originally a perfect circle and they weren't using perfect circles by the 1990s. For the most recent update, they wanted to fix that. They also had to introduce new characters (like @ and #) in the style of the original.

LONG article about this:

http://www.londonreconnections.com/2016/new-typeface-underground-johnston-100/

(PS -- that's the go-to site for London Transport fandom.)