u10.int_subintrvrsn » topography http://www.subintroversion.com/v2 random u10 musings Mon, 06 Sep 2010 06:59:59 +0000 en hourly 1 design as social activism http://www.subintroversion.com/v2/2007/08/11/design-as-social-activism/ http://www.subintroversion.com/v2/2007/08/11/design-as-social-activism/#comments Sun, 12 Aug 2007 01:05:18 +0000 {ns} http://www.subintroversion.com/v1/2007/08/11/design-as-social-activism/ a fascinating article title “the road to clarity” appeared in the nytimes this morning regarding the decade-long process of redesigning the official font used on federal road signs across the country. the new font, clearview, has been adpoted by the federal highway administration and at least 20 states to replace the previous problematic font, highway gothic. “the [new] typeface is the brainchild of don meeker, an environmental graphic designer, and james montalbano, a type designer.” perhaps my fascination about this article comes from my long obsession over road signs in general (i would collect them growing up), and most likely my obsession with road signs emerged from my passion for design, topography and sybmolic representation of meaning. i still have the road sign obsession, though no longer “collect” them. but i have definitely considered buying this vector icon graphics package of every road sign imaginable just to feed this love.

check out the article, and here are some quick comparisons between the typefaces:
clearview1 clearview2

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