The mid-century period, roughly spanning from the 1930s to the 1960s, was a time of significant social and cultural change in Britain. The aftermath of the Second World War, the rise of consumerism, the emergence of youth culture, and the influence of American and European design trends all contributed to a vibrant and diverse landscape of typography.

Although there are an almost limitless variety of fonts available to designers, certain typefaces became very popular in mid-century Britain for different reasons – these are the ones we’ll focus on here.

Johnston

Johnston is a sans-serif typeface that was designed by Edward Johnston. Johnston’s work originated the genre of the humanist sans-serif typeface, typefaces that are sans-serif but take inspiration from traditional serif fonts and Roman inscriptions.

Johnston was commissioned in 1913 by Frank Pick, the commercial manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, as part of his plan to strengthen the company’s corporate identity.

Originally created for printing, it rapidly became used for the enamel station signs of the Underground as well. It has been the corporate typeface of public transport in London since 1933. Its use is one of the world’s longest-lasting examples of corporate branding, and is now synonymous with London and its public transport system.

Johnston is often confused with Gill Sans (below). They are certainly quite similar, although Gill Sans has more formality and a cleaner appearance.

An example of Johnston in use on the London Underground (Tube):

Gill Sans

Perhaps the most well-known and most ‘British’ typeface, Gill Sans is a humanist sans-serif font designed by British sculptor and type designer Eric Gill in 1928, who himself had been a student of Edward Johnston (see above).

Gill Sans was inspired by the classic proportions and elegance of Roman capitals, but also incorporated some features of Johnston, the typeface used for the London Underground signage (see above). The two share many similarities, but Gill Sans has a slightly cleaner and more formal appearance.

Gill Sans was commissioned by Monotype as a rival to Futura, and soon became one of the most popular and versatile fonts in Britain. It was used for a wide range of applications, from official documents and signage to logos and book covers.

In 1949 the Railway Executive (a division of the British Transport Commission) decided on standard types of signs to be used at all train stations across Britain. Lettering was to use the Gill Sans typeface on a coloured background. This style persisted for nearly 15 years on Britain’s railways.

Gill Sans expresses a sense of clarity, sophistication, and ‘Britishness’, and was often associated with the BBC, Penguin Books, and the Royal Air Force.

Transport

Transport is a sans serif typeface first designed for road signs in the United Kingdom. It was created between 1957 and 1963 by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert as part of their work as designers for the Department of Transport.

Before its introduction, British road signs used the capitals-only Llewellyn-Smith alphabet that was introduced in 1933, although older signs tended to use a variety of sans serif alphabets as supplied by their manufacturers. For the kinds of roads on which these signs were intended, legibility was not a pressing issue as road speeds we comparatively slow, but the planning and building of Britain’s first motorway in the 1950’s was a catalyst for change.

The Ministry of Transport appointed an Advisory Committee on Traffic Signs for Motorways and Jock Kinneir and his assistant Margaret Calvert were appointed as graphic designers to it. All aspects of signing were investigated and tested in the new motorways and A-roads, and the committee looked at examples from other European countries as well as the USA, but Kinneir and Calvert found them somewhat harsh and unsatisfactory. Instead, they developed a more rounded typeface with distinctive tails to ‘a’, ‘t’, and ‘l’, and bar-less fractions, all of which helped legibility.

The department, seeing the successful early results of this work, then appointed another committee, again using Kinneir and Calvert as designers, to look at traffic signs for all-purpose roads.

Transport is used on every road sign in the UK - here's a Motorway exit sign:

Rail Alphabet

In the early 1960s, British Railways (which rebranded as British Rail in 1965) trialled new signs at Coventry station that made use of Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert’s recently launched Transport typeface (see above).

While Transport has since been an enduring success on road signs, it was designed around the specific needs of road users – such as visibility at speed and in all weathers. The subsequent creation of the similar Rail Alphabet was intended to provide a style of lettering more specifically suited to stations where it would primarily be viewed indoors by pedestrians.

The 1965 rebranding of British Railways included a new logo, a shortened name (British Rail), and the total adoption of Rail Alphabet for all lettering including station signage, trackside signs, fixed notices, signs inside trains and train liveries.

This consistency has been somewhat undone by the rail privatisation of the 1990's, where train companies adopted their own branding, but it is still widely used, especially throughout stations.

Rail Alphabet in use - plus the iconic Britail Rail 'double arrow' logo that was first introduced in 1965:

Festival Titling

Lettering and type design featured prominently in the graphic style of the Festival of Britain in 1951, and was overseen by a typography panel including the lettering historian Nicolete Gray.

The aptly named Festival Titling was specially commissioned and designed by Philip Boydell for the Festival of Britain. It was based on condensed sans-serif capitals and had a three-dimensional form making it suitable for use in exhibition display typography. It was used extensively on the guide books and programmes for the Festival.

Festival Titling is heavily associated with the Festival of Britain. It hasn’t been used widely since then, and is less well-known than other typefaces here, but it is a great example of the Festival style. Festival Titling combines modernism with a playful element, and has been said to bear a vague resemblance to bunting.

Some of the artwork from the 1951 Festival of Britain:

Cooper Black

Cooper Black is a heavy-weight serif font designed by American type designer Oswald Bruce Cooper in 1922. It was based on his earlier Cooper Old Style (1919), but with increased weight, rounded serifs, and softer curves. Cooper Black was imported to Britain by Stephenson Blake in 1925, and became one of the most popular fonts for display purposes in the mid-century period. It was used for headlines, logos, posters, record covers, and comic books. Cooper Black expressed a sense of fun, friendliness, and informality, and was often seen as a contrast to the more serious and geometric fonts of the time.

Slab Serif Fonts (Various)

Slab serif fonts are a type of serif font with thick, block-like serifs at the end of the strokes. They are also known as mechanistic, square serif, antique or Egyptian fonts. Slab serif fonts have a long history that spans from the early 19th century to the present day.

Slab serif fonts were first introduced by Vincent Figgins, a London typefounder, under the name “Antique” in 1815. He was inspired by the woodblock lettering that was used for advertising and posters at the time. Slab serif fonts were also influenced by the cultural fascination with ancient Egypt, sparked by Napoleon’s campaign in 1798-1801. The scholars and scientists that accompanied Napoleon brought back artefacts that revealed the mysteries of the Egyptian civilisation. Slab serif fonts were sometimes called “Egyptian” because they resembled the hieroglyphs and stone carvings of Egypt.

The Festival of Britain combined slab serif fonts with Festival Titling for festival artwork. Festival Titling isn’t the easiest typeface to read, being quite condensed with thin strokes, so it seems many public buildings adopted slab serif fonts for their signage, sometimes italicised.

The lettering on the Royal Festival Hall and the temporary Festival building on the South Bank was a bold, sloping slab serif font chosen by the Festivals typography panel, and derived in part from typefaces used in the early 19th century. Selection of these fonts has been described as a “turn to a jauntier and more decorative visual language” that was “part of a wider move towards the appreciation of vernacular arts and the peculiarities of English culture”.

Slab serif fonts went on to became popular in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, especially for architectural lettering and signage. They were used to create a sense of solidity, stability and authority for public buildings such as schools, libraries, museums, banks and government offices. They were also used to convey a sense of modernity, progress and innovation for commercial buildings such as shops, cinemas, restaurants and hotels.

Some examples of Slab Serif fonts: a telephone exchange, and a theatre program from the 1950's:

Conclusion

These are some the most widely used fonts that shaped the visual identity of Britain in the mid-century period, as they have been used so widely from the TV screens in our homes to the roads and railways we use every day.

Thankfully many continue to be used today by organisations like the BBC and London Transport, and buildings can still be found with their period slab serif lettering. The choices made in the post-war mid-century period continue to contribute greatly to Britain's 'brand', and the fact they have survived so long shows just how important such seemingly unimportant things are.