My updated and expanded version of NPS Roadway, the type design I originally developed for the U.S. National Park Service, as part of the redesign of their overall graphic identity. Searching for a replacement for its signature Clarendon font being used for all Park Service signage, NPS Roadway was developed as a highly readable signage font. Human factors testing showed that it out-performed the Clarendon by 11% in readability while occupying 10-15% less space. Rawlinson Roadway contains an extended latin character set to support both western and central European languages. I added oldstyle figures and small caps to make this a full-featured OpenType font.
The reason I start with Sabon and Planten goes back to the all day meeting I had with the Interpretive Design center at the NPS. Don Meeker and I presented our ideas for the NPS to use Syntax as the signature guide sign font. Syntax was rejected but for some reason the designers at the Interpretive Center fixated on Sabon. Ater trying in vain to explain why Sabon was not an appropriate typeface for a signage solution, I decided to go off and design my own oldstyle serif design that would solve the problem. The images that follow document that process of discovery.
Rawlinson Roadway is available exclusively from Terminal Design
A comparison of Sabon (blue) Plantin (yellow) and NPS Rawlinson (outline).
