As with most serif fonts, the 'g' is a 'two-storey' design. Some aspects of the alphabet are geometric: the letter O is a nearly perfect circle and the 'M', unlike Roman capitals (but like Caslon) straight-sided. Johnston's alphabet marked a break with the kinds of sans serif then popular, now normally known as grotesques, which tended to have squarer shapes inspired by signwriting and Didone type of the period. They are the best forms for the grandest and most important inscriptions." Justin Howes, author of the leading work on the Johnston Sans design, Johnston's Underground Type, has highlighted the similarity of the design to the eighteenth-century Caslon type designed by William Caslon in particular, noting that Johnston had worked on a book printed using this typeface shortly before starting work on his design and reproduced their structure in a textbook. Johnston greatly admired Roman capitals, writing that they "held the supreme place among letters for readableness and beauty. The capitals of the typeface are based on Roman square capitals such as those on the Column of Trajan, and the lower-case on traditional serif fonts. Johnston considered a lower-case 'q' in the capital form, a design seen in some calligraphy. Features Ī drawing and photographed carving of the Trajan capitals by Johnston's pupil Eric Gill. As a corporate font, Johnston was not available for public licensing until recently, and as such Gill Sans has become more widely used. His student Eric Gill, who worked on the development of the typeface, later used it as a model for his own Gill Sans, released from 1928. Johnston's work originated the genre of the humanist sans-serif typeface, typefaces that are sans-serif but take inspiration from traditional serif fonts and Roman inscriptions. It was a copyrighted property of the LPTB's successor, Transport for London, until Public Domain Day 2015 (Johnston died in 1944). It has been the corporate font of public transport in London since the foundation of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, and of predecessor companies since its introduction in 1916, making its use one of the world's longest-lasting examples of corporate branding. Johnston was originally created for printing (with a planned height of 1 inch or 2.5 cm), but it rapidly became used for the enamel station signs of the Underground system as well. The typeface was commissioned in 1913 by Frank Pick, commercial manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (also known as 'The Underground Group'), as part of his plan to strengthen the company's corporate identity. Johnston (or Johnston Sans) is a sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. Johnston printing blocks in the London Transport Museum
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