This weekend I went to visit my friends in Bournemouth and during my journey I had to use the London Underground. I have read about Johnston Sans (originally named Underground) in 'Just My Type' so I found it fascinating to see the font in use today. The description from Johnston's commission was to create a typeface that represented "the bold simplicity of the authentic lettering of the finest periods". I think that he achieved this brilliantly and he even made it distinctly unique, there is no question that when you see Johnston sans combined with the red and navy blue of the signage that you think of the London Underground. I particularly love the lowercase g of Johnston sans, I think it really epitomises authentic lettering yet in a quirky and modern way.
It really inspires me that a font that was designed in 1916 is still in use today, albeit a slightly updated version. Johnston was a pioneer in terms of sans serif fonts and his font used for the underground could be argued as the very first sans serif to be designed. It is simply a timeless font.
It made me realise that this font could relate to my word of 'progress' as a journey and travelling is a form of progress in my opinion. So seeing a font that is used for travelling has given me a lot of ideas for my own work. I will take my letterform that represents progressing through a journey and alter it to look like Johnston sans while still keeping the map textures. However I do think that Futura is very similar to this typeface when used in all capitals. The only really difference is when you look at it in lowercase where Futura has the more geometric and simple forms but Johnston sans is very clear, yet draws its origins from sans serif fonts.
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