Historicist: Life in Wartime
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Above is the TTC's unnamed official font. Though other fonts are similar––like Futura, which we used for elements of our survey, or Gill Sans––there are none exactly like it. No one knows who designed it, or why it's not still being used consistently across the TTC.
Enter Joe Clark, who, as we all know, cares entirely too much about the TTC's typography and signage (but goddammit, if he doesn't care, who will?). Earlier today, Clark gave a speech at the ATypI 2007 conference in Brighton, England in conjunction with his new paper, "Inscribed in the Living Tile: Type in the Toronto subway."
The paper not only chronicles the TTC's typographic history, but details its problems along the way with signage and wayfinding (and we mean "details"; there is a section of the article devoted to arrows). As he writes in that paper, "The TTC had a unique typographic legacy and, by accident or design, destroyed it. But, it turns out, that would not be the last time." Because of Clark's crazily-extensive knowledge of accessibility needs, design, and the TTC in general, the paper actually makes for an interesting read for anyone interested in the bits and pieces of the organization's aesthetic history––how it got to where it is, where it is now, and where it's headed. Maybe you won't be outraged when you hear about how the TTC is, in some cases, actually using Arial to stand in for fake Helvetica...but, then again, maybe you totally will.
Image from Joe Clark.
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And there will be more news, perhaps including a large design organization’s pulling the rug out from under me on the topic. Oh, and another presentation.
As a Torontonian resident in Tokyo for 11 years, this is an interesting topic for me. Since I moved here, the signage for Tokyo subways has been completely redesigned and executed in an estimated 400 stations. It doesn't have to take so long to improve as shown here in Tokyo!
Why the TTC can't be consistent, I do not know. Joe is correct that design does matter, and that these details can improve the communication of information.
TokyoTuds
TokyoTuds, please don’t ask for the TTC to be “consistent”! Giambrone and Webster keep stating, apropos of nothing, that people want things “consistent,” meaning they want every vestige of TTC’s past ripped out of every station that isn’t on the Sheppard line or Downsview and replaced with fake Helvetica wall to wall.
I can't wait until the old signs are removed and destroyed.
I have twenty years experience in graphic design and will be starting training a TTC driver in the next month. The TTC first posts internal hires to staff already on the payroll. Believe me, when and if I get the chance to lead on this, signage, wayfinding and information systems and marketing are where I want to make a difference!
Hey, good luck, Velochic! See you soon on the streets :-)
Hey, T. Rex, you and your lot pop up in the most inopportune places. What machine will you use to shred the irreplaceable and nearly invulnerable enamelled-steel plates, and what will you replace them with?
And if you're really a T-Rex, how are you going to carry out any of this – if I may quote Buddy Cole – with those faaaggy little hands?
Leave this to the experts, please. Your kind’s extinct.
Homophobic personal attacks on Torontoist, Joe? Tsk. I'm a little surprised. Just a little.
If you want to foot the bill I'm sure the TTC would set aside some old signs to be preserved in a museum somewhere. Keeping signs that do an inadequate job just because they're old and typographically unique is not a good idea. Don't fear the new, Joe, it's just natural selection at work.
I know, T. Rex! We homosexualists can be so homophobic!
You still haven't answered any of my questions, because you haven't thought this through and certainly haven't established anything resembling bona fides in, say, graphic design, signage, typography, accessibility, or opposable thumbs. You are, at root, a nihilist.
However! There is one imaginable option among many. Just as the Paris Metro retained numerous old Art Deco signs, many in wrought iron, and the New York MTA goes out of its way to retain the mosaic-tile signs on many of its older station walls, picture a day in which all the old enamelled-steel TTC signs (for the same of argument) are retained in place, as is all permanent sandblasted typography, while every single other sign is replaced with a new and thoroughly tested system. That way we'd be preserving the past while improving function.
We can even raise the ceiling height of a few stations so a Tyrannosaurus rex can stand upright. We can do that too!
Incidentally, I have opinion from outside experts as to why those enamelled-steel signs and sandblasted station designations are probably functional. I’ll write it down for anybody who asks who isn’t this pseudonymous commenter.
For the sake of argument, not “same.”
Well Joe, you got me there. I haven't thought it through because I don't agree. Ditch the old signs, put in new ones, maybe keep a few tokens, whatever; it's not a hot button issue for me. (I do take a little pleasure in imagining the outrage behind “removed and destroyed” however. Won't somebody please think of the children?)
At heart this isn't a matter of credentials or nihilism. I may just be a junior designer/production designer/illustrator with somewhat less experience in signage and typography, but I'm neither a nihilist nor a terrible thunder lizard (check the spelling of my nick). I'm all for Toronto retaining examples of its heritage where appropriate, if feasible, but not at the expense of a system-wide improvement. Old things can add (or retain) some character to a place, but just because there are 50,000 old signs doesn't mean you need to preserve all 50,000.
If keeping a sign as-is, in place, is what stands in the way of making a station more accessible, easier to navigate, and harmonized with the rest of the system, then tear that sucker down. There's nothing preventing the TTC from sandblasting new typefaces on new tiles.
As for the adamantium signs you're so concerned about, I'm sure they can be hacked out and would end up in a dump somewhere... :)
Having just returned from 6 months in Seoul, I'm more concerned by the absolute lack of signage for people who don't speak English. Toronto has a significant foreign-born population and is a tourist destination for people outside the Anglosphere, so where're the signs reflecting that? Every station name sign in Seoul is in Korean, Chinese, English and Japanese.
Thank you for conceding my point, Tyrannosaurist. One option among many is in fact “retaining examples of its heritage where appropriate... [because o]ld things can add (or retain) some character to a place.” You will recognize this, junior designer that you are, as a reformulation of the scenario I described in comment 9. And it is only one possible scenario.
Until that post you gave the impression, here and at your blog, that removing and destroying any signs would be unacceptable. I'm also not saying examples of every kind should be kept - heritage becomes hindrance at some point. Tear 'em out if they're in the way.
We know that designers, junior or otherwise, are visual thinkers, but you really need to read more closely, “T.”