Helvetica in the New York Subway

A colleague at Monash mentioned this story to me late last year. He wondered aloud whether subway signage would interest me, and whether the study of tile and mosaic fonts would count in any form of Book History. I was, and it does (I think). What do you think? Below is the opening paragraph and a link to the story.

The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and 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 … to tell a story that ultimately transcends the simple issue of Helvetica and the subway.

For the rest of Paul Shaw's article, go here.

More on the 2008 BSANZ conference

Andrew Sergeant, a BSANZ Council member, has provided an excellent over-view of the 2008 BSANZ conference in the the latest issue of the National Library of Australia online journal, Gateways (here).

Andrew's summary is more detailed than that in the latest issue of our Broadsheet, providing a summary of, and some comments on, the papers presented on 1–3 October at The University of Sydney.

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The same issue of Gateways contains another piece by Andrew on the retirement of BSANZ member, Margaret Dent, from her position as Exhibitions Curator at the National Library (here).

Margaret joined the National Library in about 1975 and was the Library’s Rare Books Librarian until 1992. After working in various other sections of the Library Margaret joined the Library’s Exhibitions team in 2001.

The photo (above) was taken in 1998.