Some of these letters are not entirely satisfactory, especially when it is remembered that, for such a purpose, an alphabet should be as near as possible ‘fool-proof’… as the philosophers would say-nothing should be left to the imagination of the sign-writer or enamel-plate maker. The first notable attempt to work out the norm for plain letters was made by Mr Edward Johnston when he designed the sans-serif letter for the London Underground Railways. Not completely satisfied with Johnston’s work, Gill set out to create the perfect, legible typeface. Left: Johnston Sans printing blocks now on display at the London Transport Museum, 1913 (Photo: Kaihsu Tai, Wikipedia) Right: London's Underground roundel set in Johnston Sans (often confused as Gill Sans), designed 1919 (Photo: danorbit, Flickr) Creating a ‘fool-proof’ typeface Eric Gill, who had studied under Johnston at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts, later became a friend and apprentice-and even had a small role assisting in creation of the proprietary typeface. The history of Gill Sans stems from Edward Johnston’s iconic typeface, Johnston Sans, designed for the London Underground in 1913. Called the “ Helvetica of England,” the sixth installment in our ‘Know your type’ series is the humanist sans-serif Gill Sans.
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