Gill Sans

visual reference

• Underground Alphabet (Johnston Sans) · Edward Johnstonnot yet generatedgenerate →

  gill sans is based on johnston's 1916 typeface for london underground. gill had assisted johnston on the underground alphabet in its early stages and later developed his own commercial version from it, simplifying details like the diamond dots over i and j into round dots and adjusting letterforms like the lowercase l.

  “It is based on Edward Johnston's 1916 "Underground Alphabet", the corporate typeface of London Underground. As a young artist, Gill had assisted Johnston in its early development stages.”

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• Douglas Cleverdon bookshop sign · Eric Gillnot yet generatedgenerate →

  gill painted a shop sign in sans-serif capitals for douglas cleverdon's bristol bookshop in 1926 and sketched an alphabet as a guide for future use. stanley morison saw this lettering in 1927 and commissioned gill to develop it into a full typeface, which became gill sans.

  “In 1927, Morison visited Cleverdon's bookshop in Bristol, where he was impressed by Gill's fascia and alphabet. Gill wrote that "it was as a consequence of seeing these letters" that Morison commissioned him to develop a sans-serif family.”

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• Trajan Column inscriptionnot yet generatedgenerate →

  gill's aim was to blend johnston's influence with classic serif typefaces and roman inscriptions to create a modern yet classical design. the proportions of roman square capitals, particularly those from the trajan column available as a cast at the victoria and albert museum, informed the humanist structure of gill sans.

  “Gill's aim was to blend the influences of Johnston, classic serif typefaces and Roman inscriptions to create a design that looked both cleanly modern and classical at the same time.”

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