Gill Sans, known as "The Helvetica of England" was designed in 1928 by Eric Gill. The origins of Gill Sans can be traced back to 1918 when Eric Gill's teacher, Edward Johnston, was hired to design the signage for the London Underground railway. Not completely satisfied with Johnston’s work, Gill set out to create the perfect, legible typeface. In Eric Gill's book "Essay on Typography" he writes:
"The first notable attempt to work out the norm for plain letters was made by Mr Edward Johnston when he designed the sans-serif letter for the London Underground Railways. Some of these letters are not entirely satisfactory, especially when it is remembered that, for such a purpose, an alphabet should be as near as possible ‘fool-proof’… as the philosophers would say—nothing should be left to the imagination of the sign-writer or enamel-plate maker."
Drawing heavily on Johnston’s work, Gill first experimented with his ‘improvements’ in 1926 when he hand-painted lettering for a bookshop sign in his hometown, Bristol. The alphabet, which at the time only contained uppercase letters, was noticed by Stanley Morison for its commercial potential. Morison commissioned Gill to develop a complete font family to compete with the sans-serif designs released by German foundries fueled by the overwhelming success of Futura. The font was released commercially by Monotype in 1928 as Gill Sans.
While his personal life was later discovered to be rather controversial, Eric Gill (born 1882 as Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, died 1940) was an important British sculptor, artist, and typeface designer who also gave us Perpetua and Joanna (named after one of his daughters), among others.
Gill Sans rose to popularity in 1929 when it became the standard typeface for the London and North Eastern Railway, appearing on everything from locomotive nameplates to time tables.
The typeface was used in 1935 by designer Edward Young on the now iconic Penguin Books jacket design, putting Gill Sans on bookshelves around the world.Many other notable companies (particularly in England) adopted Gill Sans as a corporate typeface by the mid-1900’s, including the BBC, British Railways, and ultimately Monotype themselves—making the typeface Monotype's fifth best seller of the twentieth century.
- Information found here.
The reason I have chosen Gill sans is because it has been widely used across the UK because it's neutral tone leaves it's personality up to the audience, rendering it a generally likeable typeface. I believe my partner in this project, Molly, reflects this typeface, as she is very easy to get along with and is liked by many people.
