I Brake for Fonts
The Drama of Road Sign Typefaces
This winter break, I hit the road, craving the escape of a long drive. You know, the kind of trip that stretches for a few hundred miles and weaves through the glow of city horizons and sunbaked mesas. After a few months of being static in San Francisco, I was delighted by the freedom of the open road.
But as I sped through the breathtaking (and sometimes nose-holding — sorry, Coalinga!) scenery, my attention was very unexpectedly captured by the humble highway sign, that wayfinder we so often take for granted.
Call me a nerd, it’s okay. I just couldn’t help but be fixated on the typefaces of those green guideposts. And that’s how I started down the rabbit hole of Highway Gothic and Clearview typefaces.
The OG of Road Sign Typefaces
Rewind to the 1940s. A time when chrome gleamed, engines roared, and America hit the gas, embracing a newfound freedom on the open road. Post-war America was in love with the automobile. Families piled into their new Chevys and Fords, eager to explore a country inaccessible to them in previous years. But road trips became a gamble. Would that next turn lead to Aunt Barbara’s, or a dead end, thanks to a confusing sign? Imagine a jumble of signs, some faded, some freshly painted, each shouting its own message in a disharmonious collection of fonts and colors. This visual chaos wasn’t just annoying, it was dangerous. Drivers, eyes darting between the road and a mishmash of competing signs, were prone to miss crucial information, leading to wrong turns, near misses, and worse.
Enter the Federal Highway Administration, determined to bring order to this visual anarchy. Their solution was a typeface designed for the age of the automobile: Highway Gothic.
Highway Gothic was more than just a simple typeface. It was a breakthrough in safety, designed for the demands of the open road. No serifs to get lost in the blur of the passing landscape, just pure, legibility. Even at a breakneck 35 mph (hey, it was the 40s!), Highway Gothic allowed drivers to grasp crucial information in the blink of an eye. For decades, it stood as a symbol of clarity and order in a rapidly changing world, a tribute to the power of good design.
A New Challenger
But time, as they say, marches on. By the late 20th century, highways were aglow with new, reflective signs, shimmering under the headlights like constellations. Ironically, these technological advancements, intended to make roads safer, introduced a new visual challenge: halos of light around the letters, especially those of Highway Gothic. For people with less-than-perfect vision, these halos could be a real headache.
What was needed to remedy this? Of course, another typeface: Clearview. Clearview took the best of Highway Gothic and subtly refined it, enlarging the counters of letters like ‘o’ and ‘p’, and giving lowercase letters a boost in height. This lead to sharper letters that cut through the halo effect, making signs legible from even greater distances, in even worse conditions. Clearview is proof that good design is always adapting, always finding better ways to guide us on our journeys.
Legibility vs. Tradition
Clearview’s arrival wasn’t met with universal applause. In fact, it ignited a debate that would illuminate the complexities of design, it pitted researchers against each other, with drivers caught in the middle. Penn State University conducted research that resulted in promising findings, suggesting that Clearview could shave precious milliseconds off a driver’s reaction time. Milliseconds that could mean the difference between a safe swerve and a tragic collision.
Just when it seemed like Clearview was about to conquer Highway Gothic, a plot twist emerged from the Lone Star State. Texas A&M’s organized a study that challenged Penn State’s conclusions, slowing down Clearview’s momentum. Their research found that Clearview wasn’t always an improvement, particularly for signs with negative contrast (dark letters on a light background, often used for warning and speed signs). This was a crucial detail, as these signs often convey the most urgent information.
The Federal Highway Administration, initially eager to embrace Clearview, suddenly found itself playing referee. In response to the conflicting research, they opted to remove their recommendation of Clearview. The future of Clearview, once so bright, now hung by a thread, leaving drivers and designers alike to wonder. What’s the next chapter in this saga?
Congress Gets Involved
As everyone was floating around in limbo, the government decided to get involved. Congress, in all its wisdom, decided to wade into the typeface debate, reinstating Clearview and throwing the entire highway signage system into a state confusion.
So now, thanks to our elected officials, America’s highways became a typographic mixtape. The reinstatement of Clearview meant that both typefaces were officially sanctioned, leaving the states to do the decision making.
The Clearview saga became a case study in how government intervention and design by committee can sometimes muddy the waters, even with the best intentions. This wasn’t just about fonts anymore. It was about bureaucracy, politics, and money (oops…).
Heading Home
With miles fading behind me, and Highway Gothic and Clearview twerking in my rearview mirror, I wondered. Will either of them ever stand alone? Will we stick with the typographic status quo? Or could a new contender emerge, a typeface that can morph to the whims of a digital highway sign?
Maybe Waymo’s robo-taxis will usher in an era of emoji-based navigation. (Shudder.) But one thing’s for sure, as long as there are roads to travel, there will be typefaces vying for our attention, guiding us towards Aunt Barbara’s.
