Gill Sans facts for kids
Gill Sans is a sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill. It was offered by the British branch of Monotype from 1928 onwards.
Gill Sans is based on Edward Johnston's 1916 "Underground Alphabet", the corporate font of London Underground. As a young artist Gill had assisted Johnston in its early development stages.
In the 1920s, Gill had become a prominent stonemason, artist and creator of lettering. He had begun to working on typeface designs. Gill was commissioned to develop his alphabet into a full metal type family by his friend Stanley Morison. Morison was a Monotype executive and a historian of printing. Morison hoped the new font would compete against a wave of German sans-serif families such as Futura.
Gill Sans was released in 1928 by Monotype. Gill's aim was to blend the influences of Johnston, classic serif typefaces and Roman inscriptions suchas on Trajan's Column. This, he hoped, would create a design that looked both cleanly modern and classical at the same time.
Images for kids
-
Gill Sans compared to other sans-serifs of the period. Gill Sans does not use the single-storey "g" or "a" used by many sans-serifs and is less monoline than Johnston. Its structure is influenced by traditional serif fonts such as Caslon rather than being strongly based on straight lines and circles as Futura is.
-
A drawing and photographed carving by Gill of the "Trajan" capitals on the Column of Trajan, a model for the capitals of Gill Sans and Johnson. Respected by Arts and Crafts artisans as among the best ever drawn, many signs and engravings created with an intentionally artistic design in the twentieth century in Britain are based on them.
-
Distinctive characters of Gill Sans.
-
An early version of Johnston on a London Underground metal sign. Johnston's design was rendered variably on some older signs, and this uses a condensed "R" and four-terminal "W".
-
The gloomy, ultra-bold sans-serifs of the Figgins foundry. Gill and Johnston sought to create sans-serif designs that were modern and not as bold as these. Gill argued in his Essay on Typography that such closed-up forms were counterproductively bold, less legible than lighter fonts of normal proportions.
-
Some of Gill's original art for Gill Sans, showing the original "Q", punctuation and two manicules
-
1940s notes from Monotype's records discuss the different drawings used for the bdpq characters
-
Compilation image of some of the fonts of the Gill Sans family that are mostly intended for display use. Detail differences are obvious, especially the "single-storey" "a" on Extra Condensed Bold.
-
Gill's drawings of Gill Kayo. Its working title "Sans Double Elefans" is visible at bottom left, and his "EG" signature at bottom right.
-
Alternative characters in Gill Sans Nova, most or all based on those offered in the metal type era
-
Metal type for Gill Sans Bold (mirrored image)
-
A Penguin Books paperback from 1949 compared to digital Gill Sans semi-bold, showing subtle differences in weight and spacing
-
1952 Jersey holiday events brochure, typical of the design style of the period
-
The BBC logo at BBC Broadcasting House, Belfast. The corporate BBC logo was used from 1997 until 2021.
-
Lettering on an Eastern Region of British Railways sign. While the lettering is clearly based on Gill Sans, some letters such as the R are very different.
-
Enamel sign at Lowestoft Central station in British Railways standard lettering. The right-hand side of the legs of the "R"s are straight rather than Gill's smooth curve.
-
A lightly customised Gill Sans on a 1935 Monotype typesetter keyboard
-
A railway timetable using Gill Sans from 1950
-
Gill Sans on an LNER hotel menu at the Royal Station Hotel in York, 1940
-
Portions of this inter-war Polish advertisement (of Gevaert negatives) are in Gill Sans using the "continental" alternatives resembling Futura
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=tracking}
.jpg)
.JPG)
See also
In Spanish: Gill Sans para niños
