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Destination Font - 1000 questions!

 
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frankie



Age: 77
Joined: 01 Feb 2011
Posts: 745
Location: St. Peters, Mo.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:45 pm    Post subject: Destination Font - 1000 questions! Reply with quote

If anyone has ever paid attention to the font used on about 99% of all North American buses, has anyone ever wondered how this particular font came about? I don't have the answers, I've always wondered that myself. It doesn't matter who made the bus or the type of bus made, it seems that the font is the same regardless of the size used to spell out it's destination. They can be traced back to the late teens and early '20's only to be replaced in time with the advent of the electronic signs of today.

I know curtains were made by many bus companies at their own shops, but I would guess that most were factory made and installed before being delivered. Who supplied the factories? How many companies were suppliers? Was there an agreement between them to use this font? Is there an actual name for it?

Can anyone shed some light?

Frankie













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JimmiB



Age: 81
Joined: 19 Apr 2011
Posts: 516
Location: Lebanon, PA

PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Complicated issue. While they look similar, actually many fonts were used. They are mostly sans serif capitals for visability.
The most common of the "vintage" signs are Standard font.
Others are Helvetica, Schipol Alphabet, Futura, News Gothic, Lechmere and Franklin Gothic.
In 1989 the MTA adopted Helvetica Medium as its offical font for trains, buses and informational signs.
Also, a lot of older bus curtains don't even have a specific font as a lot were made in-house just using block letters.
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