the New York City Subway
"There is a commonly held belief that Helvetica is the signage typeface of the New York City subway system, a belief reinforced by Helvetica, Gary Hustwit’s popular 2007 documentary about the typeface. But it is not true—or rather, it is only somewhat true. Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s. Why was Helvetica not chosen originally? What was chosen in its place? Why is Helvetica used now, and when did the changeover occur? To answer those questions this essay explores several important histories: of the New York City subway system, transportation signage in the 1960s, Unimark International and, of course, Helvetica. These four strands are woven together, over nine pages, to tell a story that ultimately transcends the simple issue of Helvetica and the subway." click HELVETICA to go to story.
5 comments:
All my university essays are either Helvetica, Bodoni or Didot...even if they want Arial, I refuse to use such an unoriginal font! haha
it's a fantastic article. as someone who isn't much of a fan of helvetica, vignelli's use of it for the transit system is phenomenal.
this also seems to be a fairly common subject lately, as here's another article written about it:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/how-helvetica-took-over-the-subway/
thanks Sean, how's the curating going ?
the curating is going amazingly! I was just officially named one last week, and was given the festivals most prestigious gallery, Art-Mur... and I was given their 2000sq ft space, also making it the largest exhibition of the festival!
i'm really really excited actually, i've never done anything like it before, so it has the possibility to go terribly, but I will definitely try my best. I've already got 7 artists lined up (6 of which are designers), and will be adding more by the end of january.
great things are lined up. one of the people I've asked to make a work is going to create a japanese Karesansui garden in the space. (he's from japan, his piece about his identity)
i'm actually more excited to see what the people i've chosen come up with more than how I happen to handle things. I will definitely keep you up to date!
I heard it was originally Akzidens-Grotesk you can see it in how the S looks in some of the signage
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