Originally designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert beginning in 1957 and first published on the Preston bypass in 1958, the original Transport font has subtle eccentricities which add to its distinctiveness, and drawing the New version involved walking a tightrope between impertinently eliminating awkwardness and maintaining idiosyncrasy. The Grotesk roots of the glyphs were investigated and cheekily fine-tuned – uncomfortably close terminals of characters such as 5, 6, C, G, and e were shortened, the S and s were given a more upright aspect and their protruding lower terminals tucked in, overly wide glyphs like the number 4 were narrowed, and some claustrophobic counters were slightly opened up. The question mark was redesigned and parentheses given some stroke contrast. The x height was edged fractionally even taller.
The Heavy font is actually more of a Bold, and the Light is pretty much a regular weight, but the original nomenclature has been retained for old times' sake.
Font Family:
· Transport New Light
· Transport New Light Italic
· Transport New Medium
· Transport New Medium Italic
· Transport New Heavy
· Transport New Heavy Italic
Tags: british, edwardpile-industrial, grotesk, highway, kinneir and calvert, motorway, sans-serif, signage