I was hoping for your help with something.

[se_davidobrien@mastodon.scot]

Well, yes. One of the #GDS mantras was not to research the hell out of stuff you already know.

And we *know* Transport is very legible. There’s 60 or 70 years of research.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_(typeface)

@pete @mwichary

[llimllib@hachyderm.io]

@mwichary Maine town line signs have a distinctive font. My friend catalogued an example of each letter, had a font designer generate a font, and made some of his own.

Unfortunately his site doesn't seem to be up any longer, so I'd have to contact him personally to get the font, can do if it's super interesting to you. He runs a farm now instead of programming

[llimllib@hachyderm.io]

@mwichary Massachusetts also has a distinctive town line sign, but I know less about it

[jvl@mathstodon.xyz]

@mwichary Recently, I was intrigued by the font on the Uruguay 2026 World Cup jerseys. It seems it may be inspired by a sign on the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo [1,2,3].

[1] https://x.com/UruguayFootENG/status/2036422367522562322?lang=en
[2] https://outsidewrite.substack.com/p/iconic-football-stadiums-estadio
[3] https://www.threads.com/@footyfont/post/DWcM0e3DFe2/new-update-uruguay-font-world-cup-home-kit-link-product

[mwichary@mastodon.online]

10.
A pixel font from the NYC Times Square news ticker, 1990s–2000s. (It’s possible this was more of a generic font used elsewhere, but I think it came to be associated with this specific place, time, and purpose.)

[ricci@discuss.systems]

@mwichary A few examples, that are fairly close to me, I can probably get photos within a week or so if that'd be helpful:

Sign of the White Horse bar: https://www.whitehorseslc.com/

Murals by artist Trent Call: https://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/trent-calls-utah-acme-co-mural-540-n-600-west/, https://payload.cargocollective.com/1/12/395174/5765813/IMG_2535_o.jpg

A few references should you ever feel like going down the rabbit hole of a 19th century attempt to redesign English orthography:

https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/designing-deseret/page/home

https://www.slugmag.com/arts/art/interviews-features/the-lost-and-found-utah-alphabet/

https://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/bob-moss-and-the-strange-alphabet-of-utah-pop/

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p089428

[finitebaffle@mas.to]

@mwichary that Gill fella was all sorts of crazy horrible though oof

[dhd6@jasette.facil.services]

@mwichary Montréal house numbers in a characteristic font in white on blue tiles, apparently nobody has any record of who originally designed or manufactured them: https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/memoiresdesmontrealais/les-plaques-dadresse-montrealaises
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/info/videos/1-7358057/eclectisme-numeros-porte-montrealais

[digitalreality@mastodon.me.uk]

@mwichary @slink for trains in the UK that are not the underground!

[mwichary@mastodon.online]

@llimllib Thanks!

[moradahmed@mastodon.social]

@mwichary This is such a fun question! Typography can be surprisingly local—sometimes a font is so deeply tied to road signs, public transport, or government infrastructure that people recognize it instantly without ever knowing its name. I’m curious to see what everyone comes up with!
رد

[julian@fietkau.social]

@mwichary A fun question.

Have you come across DIN 1451? It's used for street signs and such in Germany, and was FE-Schrift's predecessor on license plates before the year 2000. I keep a copy of it on my PC in case I need to design something that'll look like an official sign to Germans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_1451

[savetheclocktower@mastodon.social]

@mwichary The actual font may not be typographically interesting, but I immediately thought of New Orleans (where I grew up) and the tiles they embed in the sidewalk at corners to mark street names: https://64parishes.org/new-orleans-street-tiles

[csilverman@mastodon.social]

@mwichary Not sure how much non-designers notice this, but I've always liked how road signage for US national parks was set in Clarendon—Craw Clarendon, I think—not Highway Gothic/Clearview. I'm not aware of any other area that has its own road signage typeface; I'd know these were USNPS signs anywhere. I'll always associate that typeface with camping trips as a kid.

(More recently, they've been switching over to NPS Rawlinson Roadway, since it's more compact.)

[phooky@hexa.club]

@mwichary The last 30 or so seconds of this film from 1945 has footage of the ticker from around '44. Dunno why it's been stuck in my head for the past 20 years but

https://archive.org/details/Tuesdayi1945?start=980

[jef@mastodon.social]

@mwichary Fran Sans: https://emilysneddon.com/fran-sans-essay

[samueljohnson@mstdn.social]

@mwichary The Cló Gaelach font used on street signs in Ireland (also stamps, many publications in Irish)

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2025/0331/1504912-dublin-historic-street-signs/

familiar to anyone Irish. Bilingual street signs are uncontroversial in Britain (Welsh in Wales, Scots Gaelic in Scotland, Chinese in parts of London eg) and Ireland but any public signs featuring the Irish language provoke tantrums in parts of Northern Ireland where British loyalists feel threatened by Irish culture.

[malte@radikal.social]

@mwichary A classic in typefaces many places, the national train signage where I live is well reckognized and appreciated. Designed by local type foundry Kontrapunkt that has done several other very reckognizable public typefaces and can be read about here: https://kontrapunkt.com/work/dsb