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New highway font
May. 24th, 2006 09:36 amOn our road trip to Pennsylvania last weekend, we saw many signs in this new highway font (approved as an optional interim standard that states can choose to use if they want it). The variants of Clearview look so much more like a standard commercial font than the old highway fonts do that I'd initally wondered if they just picked something at random off the shelf, but the modified lowercase l (bent over like the one in Edward Johnston's London Underground font) convinced me that it was a new custom design. There are assorted comments here.
Judging from that site, the designers appear to have done a lot of research; the initial motivation for Clearview was to produce a font that was more legible for older drivers at night. It does look strange to unfamiliar eyes, though, especially when combined with signs in the old font. The old American highway font had a sort of studied Jack Webb neutrality to it: no nonsense, ma'am, here are the facts. Clearview looks like it's trying a little too hard to be your friend, and I wonder if it might make it a little harder to distinguish official highway signs from advertisements. Maybe I just have to get used to it.
Judging from that site, the designers appear to have done a lot of research; the initial motivation for Clearview was to produce a font that was more legible for older drivers at night. It does look strange to unfamiliar eyes, though, especially when combined with signs in the old font. The old American highway font had a sort of studied Jack Webb neutrality to it: no nonsense, ma'am, here are the facts. Clearview looks like it's trying a little too hard to be your friend, and I wonder if it might make it a little harder to distinguish official highway signs from advertisements. Maybe I just have to get used to it.