14th June 2016

Monotype Revives One Of London’s Most Iconic Typefaces

Marking the centennial of Johnston, the London transport network’s iconic typeface, Monotype and Transport for London (TfL) today unveiled the forthcoming release of the newly designed Johnston100 typeface. Remastered by Monotype to bring back the original flavour of the Johnston design developed 100 years ago, Johnston100 expands the palette of the original typeface to embrace both contemporary typographic trends and new digital requirements. Johnston100 includes five weights of the design, including two brand new contemporary weights: hairline and thin, and will start to appear across the TfL network later this year. Johnston was originally designed by Edward Johnston in 1916 and is instantly recognisable as the graphic language of London. Used across all trains and buses, station signage and way finding, Johnston is ingrained in the fabric of the city.

2016 marks the 100th year anniversary of the Johnston typeface, first designed by Edward Johnston in 1916.

As TfL’s presence expanded beyond physical locations/uses like train stations and uniforms to digital mediums like apps, signage and social media, the need for a modern spin on the classic typeface became apparent. Monotype expanded the design to allow for better usability across various branding platforms, and has added new weights in order to expand the voice of the typeface. This allows for a more nuanced palette and wider versatility in the design.

“The Johnston typeface speaks London. It’s been around 100 years. It will be around 100 more years if not longer. We just want to make sure it’s used consistently across all our platforms and across all future platforms we may have, so we asked Monotype to go back to the original principals of Johnston,” said Jon Hunter, Head of Design at TfL. “We didn’t want a redesign, but we did know that certain things had changed. Some of the lower case letters, for example, had lost their uniqueness. As social media has become more important, hashtags and at signs are more important – Johnston never designed those because they were never needed. Mainly we wanted to make Johnston relevant and fit for today’s purpose.”

The announcement of Johnston100 supports TfL’s celebrations to mark the centenary of the iconic Johnston typeface and forms part of TfL’s Transported by Design programme, which showcases the impact of good design on the London transport network.

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