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MUSIC: Mr Blue Sky
by Electric Light Orchestra

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There are strange types in
Britain that follow you around

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wherever you go...

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..telling you what to eat,
what to drink...

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what to see and where to go.

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These types are so ubiquitous
they're almost invisible.

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We don't even notice
that they are there...

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..and yet they are alongside us...

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..in the background and foreground
of everything we do,

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every single day...

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..creating a backdrop to Britain
for the past century.

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They are, of course, typefaces -

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the way in which we read a word -

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on a shop front, a sign,
a newspaper or a screen...

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..and two types in particular
are so fundamentally British,

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you're so used to them that
you haven't even noticed them

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all around you.

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They are Johnston...

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and Gill Sans.

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In this programme,

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we will reveal how these
typefaces have been scripting

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our lives for decades...

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..created by two unlikely
and influential characters,

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one of whom had his
reputation overshadowed

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by disturbing revelations
about his personal life.

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This is the story of
Edward Johnston and Eric Gill

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and their two types of Britain.

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Words are all around us,
everywhere we turn,

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guiding us, informing us
and tempting us.

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But every word surrounding us
is in a typeface.

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I'm Mark Ovenden, and you might say
I'm a bit of a typeface enthusiast.

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Yes, they really do exist -

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and why not?

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Typefaces are so important
and shape the way we see the world,

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something that I've always
found fascinating.

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Typefaces nowadays are usually -
and wrongly - referred to as fonts.

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A font actually depicts the size
and weight of letters.

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Whereas the typeface is the
important bit - letter design.

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Choosing the right typeface
for texts

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is more important than
you might think,

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because how lettering looks
conveys the emotion of the word.

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Imagine how differently
we might perceive

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all sorts of important
messages and brands

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if they were in the wrong typeface.

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As we rumble around
on public transport,

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we're constantly bombarded by
messages for products or services,

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but how can we differentiate between
the crucial signs

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that tell us where to get off the
train or where to go on holiday?

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We may think that we're
quite sophisticated

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but, actually, how we spot
the difference

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is the result of good design
and really clever typography.

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But it wasn't always like that.

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In the early 1900s,

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London and its traffic were
growing at an alarming rate.

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To counter this problem,
the Underground was expanding,

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with new tunnels deep
below the West End...

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..and extended lines reaching
further out to the suburbs.

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Paid advertising on the Tube station
walls was nothing new,

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and a useful source
of additional income...

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..but it was all
becoming a bit chaotic.

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Enamel and hand-painted
signs and flyposting

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were the equivalent of
today's website pop-ups

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or endless advert breaks
on the telly -

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and at railway stations,
especially those of the Underground,

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these ads littered
every available wall.

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The Underground was already
in the midst of a redesign.

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Architect Leslie Green had created

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an arts and crafts inspired
decorative feel

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to many of the new
stations in 1906...

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..but this had not solved the
signage and advertising confusion.

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Much of this work is still visible

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and has also been
preserved in pristine condition

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in now unused parts
of the Underground.

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Well, Mike, it's great to be down in
these abandoned tunnels

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underneath Piccadilly Circus.

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Can you tell us something about
the signage we can still see here?

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Indeed. What you're looking at here
is signage that dates

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from the opening of this
station in 1906,

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when the Bakerloo and
Piccadilly lines opened here,

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and, of course, this is one of the
traditional ceramic lettered tiling,

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in this slightly serif typeface
design by Leslie Green,

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the architect who built
these stations -

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but, of course, it's really very
contemporary of that period.

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It's a slightly soft
arts and crafts typeface.

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These little arrows, particularly,

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are probably the giveaway
in some respects.

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A serif is a small flourish
at the end of a letter,

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rather like the stroke of a brush.

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The Underground was using this
style of serif lettering

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on much of the railway signage...

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..but a typeface which was different
at every station

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didn't make the network
look unified.

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They were obviously trying a simple,

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similar style of lettering,

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but didn't quite manage, actually,

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to get consistency
across their stations.

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I think that was due to the fact

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that several different manufacturers
made these ceramic tiles,

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so I think there was
a subtle variation -

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but they're simple.

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The way they're laid out and
the use of the lettering on them,

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that actually allows a consistency
of approach and legibility

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and at the same time subliminally
delivering the brand.

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Frank Pick was in charge
of publicity

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for the London Underground Group
at this time.

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After years of signs being made in
a variety of serifs and sans serifs

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by the many companies
running services,

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he realised that customers could not
clearly differentiate

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between the station signage and
adverts for other companies,

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as it was all in this
chaotic mix of styles.

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Frank Pick intended to change this.

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Pick began to commission scores
of commercial artists,

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what we would now call
graphic designers,

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to come up with posters
to extol the virtues

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of using the Tube in off-peak times

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to explore London's edges

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or to come into the West End
for their shopping.

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But he knew that he wanted the
lettering to be really distinctive,

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to stand out from the graphic noise
of all the advertising,

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to be straightforward,
clear and, in his words, manly.

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A lot of the designs,

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specifically on the
advertising posters

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that were commissioned early on,

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were beginning to
stand out in this style.

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One from 1908 highlights
much of Frank Pick's vision -

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a bright, confident poster

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showcasing all the essential
elements of taking the Underground.

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Here you have those red-brick tiles
of Leslie Green,

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the Underground logo with the
large U and the big D,

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there's even a silhouette
of London in there

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and the map and a couple
of catchphrases -

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but the problem was all
the lettering was different.

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It just didn't look like
a unified organisation.

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However, everything
was about to change.

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Because a lot of the stations
were styled by this

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arts-and-crafts-based design,

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much of the typography used at
the stations and by advertisers

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of the day were in a serif.

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Frank Pick had the idea to
radically change the lettering

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to a sans serif,

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which meant removing the decorative
kicks from the characters.

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He wanted a typeface that would be
instantly associated

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with the Underground,
wherever it appeared,

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so every time you saw it
you knew where you were.

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Since the sans serif he envisaged
did not exist at that time,

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he had no option - he would have
to commission one for himself.

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Luckily for Pick, London was buzzing
with creativity in the early 1900s,

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and a young man whose passion
was the ancient art of calligraphy

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was about to catch his eye.

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His name - Edward Johnston.

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At this time, Johnston
was lecturing calligraphy

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at Central School of Art
and Design in London.

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Catherine, what was Johnston's
lecturing style like?

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By all accounts,
he was a real showman.

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We have a set of photographs
taken by one of his students,

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it just shows his blackboard
absolutely packed full

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of kind of letterforms
and different styles of letters,

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some really quite flamboyant
and exuberant ones.

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So you just kind of get
a sense of the richness

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of what it must have been to have
been a part of those classes, yeah.

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Edward Johnston was also known
in the arts and crafts circuit,

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and it was here where
he met Frank Pick,

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who was fascinated by his work.

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Given that he was a calligrapher,

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that was quite an odd choice for
Frank Pick to choose him, really,

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wasn't it, for this modern
sans serif he wanted.

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I do wonder whether or not Pick
took a punt on Johnston.

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I mean, he was an odd choice.

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He was embarking on something new,
he wasn't an expert,

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he was just opening out a territory,

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and I've always thought
that was interesting,

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that he got a job as the head
of something

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and he wasn't known for it,

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he wasn't really established
when he got that job.

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So I think it was more just maybe
a sense of excitement

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and buzz, and maybe
Pick just thought,

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"Well, I wonder what he's
going to bring to this job."

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Johnston's alphabet design
for London Transport

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was an anomaly -

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a complete contradiction
to much of his teachings.

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Here was a calligrapher who
taught his students by chalks,

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quill and ink,

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producing this radically
neat style of block letters

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without serifs...

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..but he still managed to
encapsulate

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some sneakily-placed calligraphic
touches to many of the letters.

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When you have a broad-edge pen
and you go to draw a dot of an I,

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and of course it ends up
as a diamond shape.

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There's your comma.

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So the punctuation,
the tittle, as we call them,

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was really formed
from Johnston's background

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as a calligrapher, really.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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His knowledge of a pen and
the tool and actually how you

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start to shape letters -

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and it still is what
gives Johnston Sans

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a real distinctiveness.

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So the way Johnston was doing it -

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with a couple of
chalks glued together -

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is still relevant
to type designers today.

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Yeah, absolutely - but not
just type designers, I mean,

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I'd say anybody that's working
with typefaces, and who isn't?

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We're all using fonts
on our computers every day.

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It's just the most easy way to
demonstrate the relationship

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between tool and letter form.

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Students can identify
straightaway with it.

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Also, you can rub it out.
MARK CHUCKLES

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From 1916,

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Edward Johnston's new and very
different lettering was adopted

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for publicity material across
the London Underground.

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It wasn't the first sans serif
invented during this time,

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but it was the first to base its
letters on Roman square proportions,

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focusing on the narrow width
of the strokes.

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A feeling of progress was
in the air,

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a desire to clear up the
messes of the past

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and build a brave new world.

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Unification of London's transport
system was already well on the way.

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In 1916, a man named Frank Pick,

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on behalf of the new
Underground Railway Group,

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had commissioned a new
sans serif typeface

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from one of Britain's leading
typographers, Edward Johnston.

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The result is the clear,
bold Johnston lettering

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that graces London's
transport system.

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A truly 20th-century achievement.

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The modern concept of
intellectual property

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did not exist during this period,

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but the design was fiercely
guarded by London transport.

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So much so, printers who had access
to the type blocks were forbidden

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to use them on anything else.

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The typeface was
a complete success -

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but it wasn't exactly a
life-changing experience

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for Edward Johnston.

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After Johnston had delivered
his first alphabets to Frank Pick,

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he just carried on working
at Central School,

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he didn't really work on
any other typefaces, did he?

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I don't think he set out to be
a great type designer

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and I don't think he set out
to be famous

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or to achieve in that kind of way.

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He was just really happy
with his ideas,

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00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:54,920
with finding out
and studying lettering.

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Such was the success of the
lettering for the Underground,

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Johnston later went on to
design a condensed version

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of his typeface for the
bus destination boards, as well...

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00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:13,640
..but with this new unified brand
spreading across London,

245
00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:16,960
Pick needed assurance that
no-one would deviate from it.

246
00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:22,360
What was needed was some kind of
easy-to-follow instruction book

247
00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:24,240
that everybody could copy,

248
00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:28,440
and that's exactly what
London Transport did in 1938

249
00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:30,640
with the Standard Signs Manual -

250
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:34,560
the first time a corporate identity
manual had ever been created

251
00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:36,960
for any transport
organisation in the world.

252
00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:42,680
And here we have all the elements
of what should exist on a sign.

253
00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:44,760
Here's the logo at the top.

254
00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:46,880
Underneath, all the station names,

255
00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:50,040
even including what colour each
of the lines would be in.

256
00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:56,360
Thanks to Frank Pick's vision
and Edward Johnston's style,

257
00:14:56,360 --> 00:15:00,160
transport in London now
had its own brand.

258
00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:04,000
The signage stood out from
the rest of the graphic noise

259
00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:08,440
to form a clear and concise
wayfinding system,

260
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:10,640
making it a lot easier to get out.

261
00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:24,160
Johnston's creation defined
London Transport.

262
00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:27,360
Everywhere you looked,
Johnston was looking back at you.

263
00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:33,400
So no matter whether your journey
was from Ongar to Kilburn,

264
00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:38,400
you would know that the whole way
would be guided by this beautiful,

265
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,240
aesthetically pleasing
Johnston typeface.

266
00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:48,320
London Transport jealously guarded
Johnston's creation in its entirety,

267
00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:51,440
which meant London was
exactly where it would stay.

268
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:56,760
Johnston himself left the Big Smoke

269
00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:59,960
to work out of the small East Sussex
village of Ditchling,

270
00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:03,280
where there is a museum showcasing
much of his work.

271
00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,720
I've seen London Transport
posters my whole life

272
00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:11,400
and admired the lettering,

273
00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:13,920
but this is the first time
I've ever held

274
00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:16,960
some of the lower case
wooden letters -

275
00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:21,400
and it's just fantastic to see the
calligraphic influences that are

276
00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:23,480
brought out by some
of these letters.

277
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:27,000
Just look at that big swish
underneath the comma,

278
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,520
and the tittle, the dot,
above the I -

279
00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:32,680
Johnston's absolutely
famous diamond...

280
00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:36,120
and this double-storey,
or eyeglass, G.

281
00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:37,880
The attention to detail,

282
00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:40,600
the balance that he managed
to eventually work

283
00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:44,000
into the proportions of
that G are just beautiful.

284
00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:51,000
This different and
calligraphy-inspired design

285
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,480
changed the way London
looked forever...

286
00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:57,840
..but where did Johnston's vision
and ideas come from?

287
00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:02,640
To find out, I've come to meet
his grandson, Andrew,

288
00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:05,040
to examine Edward Johnston's
beginnings.

289
00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:08,720
He had a very strange start in life.

290
00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:12,960
He was born in 1872
on a ranch in Uruguay.

291
00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:16,080
It was quite an unconventional
sort of childhood.

292
00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:18,120
His father was quite
a strange figure.

293
00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:21,920
He was from this deeply
religious family

294
00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:24,040
but he corresponded with Darwin,

295
00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:26,520
he had quite sort of
revolutionary ideas

296
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:29,360
that children should
do what they want.

297
00:17:29,360 --> 00:17:32,520
The result was Edward was
mainly brought up by his aunt,

298
00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:34,840
who was very sweet
but terribly neurotic

299
00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:37,360
and worried all the time
about him catching cold,

300
00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:39,600
and so kept him basically indoors

301
00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:42,600
and his father kept him uneducated

302
00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:45,480
for most of his
childhood life, really.

303
00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:50,240
You would not think that
going to a calligrapher,

304
00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:53,560
sitting at this desk,
using a quill pen -

305
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:58,600
how is he going to give you one of
the world's best-known typefaces?

306
00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:03,320
A most unlikely figure to then
become a modern graphic designer.

307
00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:05,480
ARCHIVE: The very way
the word is written

308
00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:07,560
is like the familiar voice
of a friend.

309
00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:11,000
The look of London Transport
is its personality.

310
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:15,120
The triumphant, unified design that
Johnston had transported

311
00:18:15,120 --> 00:18:18,760
to tubes, trams and buses
wasn't just in the typeface.

312
00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:23,680
Frank Pick later asked him to
redesign the Underground logo,

313
00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:25,800
known as the bull's-eye or roundel.

314
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,000
After the success of
the Underground type,

315
00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:33,040
I think Pick saw that he could
do other work for him.

316
00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:36,480
One thing that he looked at was
the bull's-eye, as it was called -

317
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:39,920
the solid red disc with some
rather clunky sans serif lettering

318
00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:41,560
across it on a bar.

319
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:45,400
Not an easy commission, and Pick
was not an easy man to deal with,

320
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:50,080
but he did succeed in producing
something that Pick liked,

321
00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:53,320
which was to hollow out
the solid disc into a ring,

322
00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:56,560
place the lettering on a very
carefully proportioned bar,

323
00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:59,320
put ribbons above the lettering
and below the lettering,

324
00:18:59,320 --> 00:19:01,440
with a big U and big D,

325
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:05,440
and you've got a balanced logo
that still survives to this day,

326
00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:09,360
really, in modified form,
and was a runaway success.

327
00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:13,960
Johnston's designs and masterful
teaching methods

328
00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:16,720
were inspirational to
many of his students.

329
00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:21,000
It was in the classes
at Central Saint Martins

330
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:23,960
where a young architect
turned stonecutter

331
00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:27,400
named Eric Gill first fell
under Johnston's spell.

332
00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:36,720
Eric Gill was well-known
in art circles

333
00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:39,640
for much of his sketches
and stone carvings.

334
00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:44,280
His early works had gained
a lot of attention

335
00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:45,920
for the manner in which
they contained

336
00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:48,760
both religious
and sexual connotations.

337
00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:58,000
Gill attended evening classes
at Central Saint Martins College

338
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:01,480
in London to learn
another art form - calligraphy.

339
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:08,160
He became transfixed by
his lecturer, Edward Johnston,

340
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:11,400
and had even assisted him on his
commission for the Underground.

341
00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:20,120
Gill remained inspired by Johnston's
success and began experimenting

342
00:20:20,120 --> 00:20:23,320
to create his own
sans serif alphabet.

343
00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:27,760
A friend asked him to paint
a sign for a Bristol book shop.

344
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:32,600
This would effectively be the
first major exposure of a new style

345
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,120
that had never been
seen outside of London.

346
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,800
Historically, printing words
in books and newspapers

347
00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:44,120
was a skilled craft.

348
00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:47,080
Typesetters assembled texts by hand

349
00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:50,880
from individual wooden
or metal letters,

350
00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:52,760
but in the late 1800s,

351
00:20:52,760 --> 00:20:56,160
a mechanical method called
casting was invented

352
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,960
that punched out the tiny
letters from strips of metal.

353
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:06,240
One of the key companies
revolutionising this trade

354
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,960
was called Monotype,
based in Redhill in Surrey.

355
00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:15,080
To make larger display-sized
headlines for posters and adverts,

356
00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:17,480
they created the super-caster,

357
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:20,360
which could automatically
compile letters

358
00:21:20,360 --> 00:21:23,800
into whole sentences
from molten metal.

359
00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:27,120
Monotype commissioned type designers

360
00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:29,120
to make alphabets
for their machines,

361
00:21:29,120 --> 00:21:31,400
then licensed the rights
to use them.

362
00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:36,160
So every time a company used
one of their typefaces

363
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:39,960
on adverts or signs,
Monotype would be paid a fee...

364
00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,480
..but they were on the lookout
for something new and exciting

365
00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:46,680
with a slightly Art Deco feel -

366
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:48,720
and they were about to find it.

367
00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:56,160
Gill's new lettering was
spotted on the book shop sign

368
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:58,880
by a consultant
called Stanley Morison,

369
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:00,640
who was working for Monotype.

370
00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:04,000
He was keen to commission
something in this style

371
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,120
that the corporation could license.

372
00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:09,320
It was the dawn of Gill's
new typeface

373
00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:12,000
that would alter the way
Britain looked forever.

374
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:14,720
Not bad.

375
00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:20,040
When working on early designs
for London Underground,

376
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:23,360
Johnston was aided by
his student Eric Gill,

377
00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:26,680
famously handing him 10%
of the fee for his assistance.

378
00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:31,240
Gill's experimental design on
the Cleverdon book store

379
00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:34,120
adopted a Johnston-inspired
sans serif.

380
00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:38,200
He worked fast on
his new commission,

381
00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:40,960
and transposed the letters
he had prepared for the shop,

382
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:43,280
turning them into
a fully formed alphabet...

383
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,080
..but he didn't give Johnston
a penny.

384
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:50,480
Here it is.

385
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,280
This delicate piece of brown paper
lives here

386
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:56,680
in London's St Bride
Printing Library,

387
00:22:56,680 --> 00:22:59,520
hand-inked by Gill himself,

388
00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:02,400
which shows just how revolutionary,

389
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:07,240
radically clean and light
his typeface was going to be,

390
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:10,680
compared to the old,
fussy serifs of the past.

391
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:15,960
All Gill and Monotype needed
now was a customer,

392
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:17,360
a big customer.

393
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:23,040
By chance,
the London North Eastern Railway,

394
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:26,080
who were then the second largest
train company in Britain,

395
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:27,640
were looking to rebrand.

396
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,040
Cecil Dandridge, the LNER
advertising manager,

397
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:35,800
had seen how the radical
sans serif design

398
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,720
had brought clarity and authority
to the London transport system.

399
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:44,120
He quickly ordered the
Johnston-inspired lettering

400
00:23:44,120 --> 00:23:46,240
of Gill Sans from Monotype

401
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:49,120
to use across the
entire LNER network...

402
00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:54,160
..including one of their
most iconic locomotives...

403
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:56,560
..the Mallard.

404
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,480
By the middle of the 1930s,

405
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:05,520
the LNER had used Gill Sans typeface
on every conceivable surface,

406
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,240
and when this magnificent blue beast

407
00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:12,720
broke the world speed record
in 1938,

408
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:16,240
pictures of its nameplate
in Gill Sans lettering

409
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:18,400
went around the world.

410
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,320
Gill must have been thrilled

411
00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:26,800
that his typeface now donned
the Mallard locomotive.

412
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:29,440
As a reward for the success
of his work,

413
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:33,440
Cecil Dandridge invited Gill aboard
one of their other famous trains -

414
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:34,760
the Flying Scotsman.

415
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:40,920
Unlike Johnston,
who had inspired his design,

416
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,840
Gill's lettering escaped
the confines of London.

417
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:49,160
It's thanks to the railways

418
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:52,840
that this beautifully balanced sans
serif typeface

419
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:56,440
got transported to
every single corner of Britain -

420
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:58,920
from Land's End to John O'Groats.

421
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,840
Well, more accurately, from Penzance
to Wick, where the railways ran.

422
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:10,200
It wasn't just the station signs
that extolled this new design,

423
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,760
timetables, information posters,

424
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:17,600
even the dining car menu were all
printed in Gill's radical typeface.

425
00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:25,160
The LNER effectively
popularised Gill Sans in Britain,

426
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:27,000
forcing all the printing companies

427
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,240
who worked for them
to buy the typeface in -

428
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:33,760
and once they had it,
they used it for everything else.

429
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:37,600
Gill Sans was sleek,
modern, streamlined -

430
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:41,280
just like the record-breaking
Mallard. They were a perfect match.

431
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,280
Other mainline train companies
attempted to emulate the success

432
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:49,360
of the LNER's brave
and smart new look,

433
00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:52,480
adopting Gill Sans for some
of their advertising too.

434
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:58,640
This made it the go-to typeface
for many printing companies

435
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:00,280
across the country.

436
00:26:04,360 --> 00:26:06,200
Turned out not too bad, really.

437
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:10,480
Just look at this. It really shows
the clarity of Gill's thinking

438
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:12,600
in the design of this typeface.

439
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,560
Look at that
perfectly circular O -

440
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:17,880
and the sloping edge of the T,

441
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:20,880
a very distinctive feature
of Gill Sans.

442
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,920
A clearness and clarity
of a sans serif like this

443
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:27,320
had never really been
seen outside of London.

444
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:30,720
But how exactly did Gill's
new countrywide design differ

445
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:32,760
from Johnston's London-based one?

446
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,000
Gill famously said that he thought
that his alphabet

447
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,920
improved upon his master's, so it's
interesting to compare the two.

448
00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,360
This is Johnston's capital R,

449
00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:47,040
supported by a completely
straight leg,

450
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:50,080
almost like a piece of furniture
holding up the bowl.

451
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:51,680
On Gill's R,

452
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:56,080
it's propped up by this
wonderfully graceful sprung tail,

453
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,000
inspired by Roman
and Trojan lettering.

454
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,800
I wonder whether maybe Gill
has the edge on this letter.

455
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,680
Looking at the Gill Sans alphabet
next to the Johnston one,

456
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:13,200
the untrained eye could easily
mistake them as the same typeface.

457
00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:15,160
However, they are anything but.

458
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:20,320
Gill used a lot of symmetry
in his letters and numerals,

459
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:23,200
like this perfectly balanced 3,

460
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:25,720
which could almost be
an 8 chopped in half.

461
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:32,120
Johnston's capital Es and Fs have
a much shorter middle crossbar,

462
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:35,560
whereas Gill has them parallel
with the top of the letter.

463
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:39,640
It was exactly the straightforward
clarity Monotype were looking for.

464
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,320
They were so pleased
with Gill's design,

465
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:46,320
they ordered alternate weights
and improvements to it.

466
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:52,480
He went on to create several
other typefaces, too,

467
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:56,080
although they weren't anywhere
near as successful as Gill Sans.

468
00:27:59,920 --> 00:28:04,120
Thanks to Gill's success,
Monotype wanted him on a retainer -

469
00:28:04,120 --> 00:28:05,680
and here's the contract.

470
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:09,000
"Gill shall deliver
one new typeface,

471
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,360
"comprising both Roman
and italic characters",

472
00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:15,760
for the princely sum
of £200 a year.

473
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,640
Doesn't sound a lot,
but in today's money,

474
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:21,840
that would be more like £10,000.

475
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:29,920
But by the late 1930s,
Britain was at war.

476
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,480
With the threat of Nazi invasion,

477
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,280
rationing and austerity
were starting to bite.

478
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:39,960
In an attempt to boost morale,

479
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:42,400
an accessible and
straightforward typeface

480
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:46,200
was required to use on much of
the spirit-lifting propaganda

481
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:47,600
and information posters...

482
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:51,400
..a type that most of
the printing companies

483
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:53,640
already had easy access to -

484
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:55,560
Gill Sans.

485
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,520
Edward Johnston and Eric Gill both
passed away having witnessed

486
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,160
their creations dominate
the British landscape.

487
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,640
Gill, who had remained in the public
eye for most of his working life,

488
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,280
died of lung cancer in 1939.

489
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,000
Johnston, who had largely
retired from public view,

490
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,840
died in his home
in Ditchling in 1944...

491
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,680
..but the fruits of their work
were very much still alive,

492
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:31,960
turning them both into cult figures
in the arts and crafts world.

493
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:33,760
However, Johnston and Gill,

494
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,800
although close friends and clearly
inspirational to each other,

495
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:40,400
could not have been more different.

496
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,720
The contrasts are evident when
examining some of the sculpture

497
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:47,200
and drawings created by Gill
throughout his life.

498
00:29:58,240 --> 00:29:59,800
He was, on the surface,

499
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,760
a deeply creative and highly
respected figure

500
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:05,280
in religious and artistic circles.

501
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:09,120
But behind closed doors,

502
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,360
Gill lived a life of
sexual obsession

503
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:12,880
that mirrored much of his art.

504
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:18,160
Gill wasn't a straightforwardly
moralistic person.

505
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,640
I believe he was
genuinely religious,

506
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:26,520
but his personal life
was extremely complex.

507
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,760
Cultural historian
Fiona MacCarthy began researching

508
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:35,520
Eric Gill in the 1980s for a
biography on his intricate artworks,

509
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:39,240
and uncovered details of
his morally destructive life.

510
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:43,240
A lot of the work is
religious in content,

511
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:47,600
but then there's this underlying
sense of the erotic,

512
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:51,600
because Gill was passionately
interested in sex,

513
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:56,360
and one gets this sort of
curious balance in his work.

514
00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:00,120
He was a very bizarre person,

515
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:02,640
a very extreme person -

516
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:04,840
but fascinating to study.

517
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:11,080
He was working on Prospero and Ariel
in the 1930s,

518
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:15,360
the great well-known carving
outside the BBC building,

519
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,520
and he was by then really
very much in the public eye.

520
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:23,760
People were seeing him up
there on the scaffold,

521
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:25,720
because he was a hand carver.

522
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,080
Gill couldn't decide whether he
wanted to be this humble workman

523
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:31,360
or a superstar.

524
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:38,280
He was against commerce,
but then took lucrative contracts.

525
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:43,040
He was profoundly religious,
but deeply immoral.

526
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:47,400
So he is quite a hard character
to get to grips with.

527
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,080
I think Gill couldn't resist
being a celebrity.

528
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:54,560
He had this longing
for public adulation,

529
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,600
but he also couldn't
resist shocking people.

530
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:02,600
He'd make wild statements
about politics and sex

531
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,000
and man's most precious, ornament,

532
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:07,640
which was, of course, his penis.

533
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:11,640
He couldn't resist the controversy.

534
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:18,920
Fiona gained access to the archive
of Gill's personal effects,

535
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:20,560
including his diary...

536
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:24,600
..and the disturbing
self-confessed entries

537
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:27,680
she found there were
to shock the public

538
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:31,280
and tarnish much
of his work thereafter.

539
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,240
I found a lot about
the private Gill,

540
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:39,160
because he was very uninhabited in
what he wrote down in his diaries,

541
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:49,000
of incestuous relationships
with his sisters,

542
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:53,200
incestuous relationships
with his children,

543
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,480
sexual experiments with
the family dog, even,

544
00:32:56,480 --> 00:33:00,200
because Gill was very, very
obsessed with sex,

545
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:02,760
and the functioning of the body,

546
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:06,480
and these experiments
were all noted down

547
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:11,360
in this extraordinary,
meticulous way in his diaries.

548
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:16,040
He was, as one of his friends
once said, mad about sex.

549
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:18,640
He could never resist
the opportunity.

550
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:24,640
Even though the diaries
were written 50 years prior,

551
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:27,920
the criminal and amoral details
listed throughout

552
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:31,600
have led many to believe
you cannot separate Gill's art

553
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:33,200
from his depravities,

554
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:35,920
and that knowledge of
his terrible misdeeds

555
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:38,920
undermines the aesthetic
value of his work.

556
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:43,040
I knew when I unearthed
this material

557
00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:47,600
that if I wrote the biography
that I felt I needed to write,

558
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,560
bringing out all these
aberrations of behaviour,

559
00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:53,600
his sexual behaviour,

560
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:58,600
I was going to upset deeply a lot
of the people who revered Gill most.

561
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:04,440
The revelations of Gill's private
life led to many critics

562
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:07,400
calling for his work to be
removed from public view.

563
00:34:11,240 --> 00:34:12,560
It was, they argued,

564
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:14,720
impossible to appreciate his art

565
00:34:14,720 --> 00:34:18,560
knowing it was produced by the same
hands that abused his children.

566
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:26,880
Art creations such as the 1923
print titled Girl In The Bath

567
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:28,960
were viewed in a
very different light

568
00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:31,000
when learning that it was
in fact modelled

569
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:32,880
on his 13-year-old daughter.

570
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:40,840
We're now more and more aware
of the problems of child abuse,

571
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:46,960
the terrible problems that affect so
many people in such desperate ways.

572
00:34:47,240 --> 00:34:52,160
There is a resistance to looking at
Gill's art with any seriousness

573
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,400
once you know the details
of his personal life,

574
00:34:56,400 --> 00:35:00,520
particularly the incest
with his children,

575
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:04,400
and I understand where these
people are coming from,

576
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:09,440
but I certainly don't think that one
can write off the wonderful work

577
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,320
that he did because of the things

578
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:16,440
that one has to disapprove of
in Gill's personal life.

579
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:23,560
Despite campaigners wanting
Gill's sculptures removed,

580
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:27,560
his typeface has not been
spurned in quite the same way -

581
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,920
possibly because it's a less
emotive or suggestive art form.

582
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:38,400
It remains ubiquitous on modern
word processing software,

583
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,440
and is still used by brands
and businesses the world over.

584
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:45,920
It is instead the flaws within
the design of the lettering

585
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:49,400
that's been the subject of
modern scrutiny and criticism,

586
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:53,640
arguing that the sizing and shape of
the typeface is not user friendly.

587
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:56,080
I've come to meet
senior lecturer Ben Archer

588
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:57,880
at the Leicester Print Workshop,

589
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:01,360
who finds Gill's work slightly,
well, mismatched.

590
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:05,480
Ben, Gill described his
work as foolproof.

591
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:07,120
What's your take on it?

592
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:09,360
Not quite foolproof.

593
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,880
It's a less than ideal typeface
made by an idealist.

594
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:17,040
Johnston, as a calligrapher, was
used to working two-dimensionally,

595
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:18,320
on the flat.

596
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:21,960
Gill's got a more organic
feel about the whole thing.

597
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:24,840
His curves are very sensuous.

598
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:29,400
That, I guess, is about him being
a letter carver and a sculptor,

599
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,600
working with his hands,
moulding shapes, I think.

600
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:38,200
But when examining similar-shaped
letters in Gill's alphabet,

601
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:42,240
it highlights what some see as
weaker elements to the design.

602
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:46,640
Here we have a lower case L,

603
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:49,280
a numeral 1 and an upper case I.

604
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:50,920
They're just all
identical, aren't they?

605
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:52,520
It must have been very confusing.

606
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:55,000
The three Is,
as we're now calling them.

607
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:58,040
So, you could have something
that looks like it's "ill",

608
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:00,560
or it's a Roman three,
you're not really to know.

609
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:04,760
Although greatly
inspired by Johnston,

610
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:09,200
Gill did a lot of simplifying
and refining to his letters.

611
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:13,720
Johnston's numeral 1, here,
with its shaved, sloping top,

612
00:37:13,720 --> 00:37:17,960
is a lot more distinguishable from
the flat top version of Gill's 1,

613
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,520
or upper-case letter I
and lower-case L.

614
00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:23,840
To critics like Ben,

615
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:26,560
many of the issues he has
with Gill's alphabet

616
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:30,200
stem from how difficult they are
to distinguish between each other.

617
00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:35,720
Take these lower case letters
of P, Q, D and B.

618
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:39,480
When thrown together
in a box of type...

619
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:44,800
..they are quite easy to mix up
when they look pretty much the same

620
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:46,920
upside down and back to front.

621
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:52,080
For a typeface, to a
nation of shopkeepers,

622
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:54,280
it's quite a serious problem.

623
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:58,360
For all that we know that one was

624
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:01,120
taking the other as
the inspiration, you know,

625
00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:03,040
they are very different things -

626
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:07,400
and, of course, their histories lead
in entirely different directions.

627
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:12,360
Gill Sans became this utilitarian,
quotidian sort of super face -

628
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:14,200
The Helvetica of England -

629
00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:17,920
and Johnston was literally locked up
and left underground

630
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:20,240
for nearly a century,

631
00:38:20,240 --> 00:38:23,680
you know, protected
and not freely available.

632
00:38:25,240 --> 00:38:27,080
Even after their deaths,

633
00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:31,920
Johnston and Gill's creations were
still subtly encapsulating Britain.

634
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:36,600
By the middle of the 20th-century,
it was hard to miss

635
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:39,680
either Johnston or Gill's typefaces.

636
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:42,720
Johnston was entirely
synonymous with London,

637
00:38:42,720 --> 00:38:44,800
from the tickets to the signage,

638
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:47,120
the train liveries
to the bus stops -

639
00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:49,680
but as the country approached
the late '50s,

640
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:52,560
the first cracks began to surface.

641
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:55,280
Johnston's typeface,
in particular, had a flaw.

642
00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:00,680
As London Transport demanded more
from the text on their publicity,

643
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:04,000
it forced printers and designers
to push the boundaries.

644
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:10,200
The Johnston typeface, designed
for wood in the age of steam,

645
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:14,720
was becoming unfit for purpose
in the white heat of technology.

646
00:39:14,720 --> 00:39:19,400
London Transport needed it available
in a much greater range of sizes.

647
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:22,720
Because it was so inflexible,

648
00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:25,480
London Transport
began using other typefaces

649
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:27,560
for much of its printed material.

650
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:31,160
For the first time in 30 years,
timetables,

651
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:34,600
adverts and posters
were not set in Johnston.

652
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,160
Printing technology
was advancing rapidly,

653
00:39:41,160 --> 00:39:44,200
and the old stalwarts of
wartime and austerity

654
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:46,920
were beginning to look a bit jaded -

655
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:49,280
and, even worse, for Gill Sans,

656
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:52,760
it was becoming a
victim of its own success.

657
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:55,840
Designers of the day were looking
for something fresh.

658
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:02,800
Gill Sans and Johnston were being
shunned by the country.

659
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:05,720
Now replaced by more
modern and chic designs.

660
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:10,600
Typefaces like Helvetica
became far more popular.

661
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:15,360
Its letters were easier for printers
to resize and for Britain,

662
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:16,920
entering its summer of love,

663
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:19,360
it didn't have the
connotations of wartime.

664
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:28,840
Johnston and Gill Sans were now
becoming just a little bit uncool.

665
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:32,160
Associated with officialdom,
bossing people around,

666
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:34,160
telling them where to go -

667
00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:35,920
but they weren't entirely dead.

668
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:40,240
One London-born designer was about
to create an album cover for the

669
00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:43,280
biggest pop group in the world -

670
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,760
and he was kind of inspired
these big, red beauties.

671
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:57,240
OK, so the front cover of Abbey Road
had no typography at all,

672
00:40:57,240 --> 00:41:00,560
but the back featured the
road name in ceramic letters,

673
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:04,360
and the track listing was
deliberately chosen by the designer

674
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:07,000
John Kosh to be Gill Sans.

675
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:08,280
I'm a Londoner.

676
00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:11,400
I guess I was influenced
without knowing it by Johnston,

677
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:13,600
because it's all around me,
surrounding me,

678
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:16,000
on buses that would go by,
on the Tube trains.

679
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:18,880
Barred from using Johnston,

680
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:22,440
which was exclusively owned
and protected by London transport,

681
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:25,200
Kosh turned to Gill Sans.

682
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:28,200
As a display face I thought it
was perfect, free of use,

683
00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:30,640
but I guess I didn't realise
that until I got to art school

684
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:34,480
and we just started experimenting,
and my favourite font was Gill.

685
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:37,800
I didn't realise that it had fallen
out of fashion, to be honest,

686
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:41,120
I just thought it was a
great, legible typeface.

687
00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:47,960
John Kosh worked for
Apple Records in the 1960s,

688
00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:50,680
where he was responsible
for design and publicity.

689
00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:59,120
He was renowned for not letting the
modern typeface trends of the day

690
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:00,280
dominate his work.

691
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,520
To be honest, I just started
playing with...

692
00:42:05,520 --> 00:42:10,480
Helvetica, in my early days in
design, seemed to be too bland -

693
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:13,640
but Gill somehow just
was a great display face.

694
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:15,720
Large, you can make it very stark -

695
00:42:15,720 --> 00:42:18,560
but for text, with those
ascenders and descenders,

696
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:22,080
you could just really
read it without eyestrain.

697
00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:23,440
And on Abbey Road,

698
00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:26,280
it wasn't just the choice of an
outdated typeface that

699
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:27,720
gave it an unusual look.

700
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:33,680
My claim to fame with Abbey Road was
the fact that I did not display type

701
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:36,720
of The Beatles on the cover,
or Abbey Road,

702
00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:39,680
which caused a lot of consternation
at the record company at the time -

703
00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:42,520
but, if you notice that the lyrics
and all the typography,

704
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:45,240
they're all in Gill
because it's very legible,

705
00:42:45,240 --> 00:42:49,400
and when we got round to Let It Be,
Let It Be was just all Gill.

706
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:52,640
Right from the start. The Beatles
didn't know I was using Gill Sans,

707
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:54,360
or probably even really care.

708
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:55,520
They didn't notice,

709
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:58,120
they were totally oblivious
to what fonts I was using

710
00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:01,640
and I just was, you know, my homage,
I think, to my background -

711
00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:04,480
and the Beatles, you know.
Who came from Liverpool!

712
00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:13,320
The Electric Light Orchestra...

713
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:14,800
..Aerosmith...

714
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:16,640
..the Eagles...

715
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:18,840
all Kosh designs,

716
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:21,240
all draped in Gill Sans,

717
00:43:21,240 --> 00:43:26,280
a typeface that was dying out in
the '50s and '60s was now back.

718
00:43:26,720 --> 00:43:29,080
America seemed to be
stuck on Futura, you know,

719
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:32,520
Rod Stewart's coming over and ELO's
coming over and a lot of my clients

720
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:34,160
are coming over. Ringo.

721
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:36,680
And I just wanted to make
them feel at home somehow.

722
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:38,800
They might not have known why,
but this...

723
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:42,400
These are the fonts that they've
grown up with or seen around them.

724
00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:45,800
When I see Gill Sans in other
people's work and in my work,

725
00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:47,840
I just feel that there
is a little thrill there

726
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:50,640
that they've chosen
the right font, the right face.

727
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:54,640
So it goes without saying that
it has spread round the world.

728
00:43:56,960 --> 00:44:01,160
Gill Sans was slowly creeping
back into British designs,

729
00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:04,080
now digitised by photo
typesetting technology.

730
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:11,280
By the 1980s, it was being used
by many designers of the day.

731
00:44:13,720 --> 00:44:17,640
It was, of course, a decade
where style was everything.

732
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,120
The '80s was an interesting period.

733
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,520
It was an amazing period
to be in the middle

734
00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:28,560
of this huge explosion of new music,
new fashion, new art, new design.

735
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:31,120
And some of it was
technologically driven -

736
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:33,240
there was stuff
we could do in the '80s

737
00:44:33,240 --> 00:44:36,000
that you just couldn't
do in the '70s or the '60s.

738
00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:44,760
In the '80s, it became easier

739
00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:47,120
to change the size of
type and graphics,

740
00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:50,160
thanks to the benefits
of computer-aided design.

741
00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:55,360
Neville Brody spent much of the
1980s as the graphic designer

742
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:58,480
for many of the
cult magazines of the day,

743
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:01,040
such as The Face and City Limits.

744
00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:05,920
Both of these adopted the
clean elements of Gill Sans,

745
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:08,520
but with a contemporary twist.

746
00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:12,920
We were able now to experiment
with this on a regular level.

747
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:16,520
We didn't need to be kind of
highly-trained type designers,

748
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:20,760
we could instruct something
to be 10% width, for instance.

749
00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:24,760
We brought this in
The Face magazine -

750
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:26,440
particularly with City Limits,

751
00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:28,480
it was Gill
we were experimenting with.

752
00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:32,680
We felt we could just be exuberant
and joyful

753
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:36,040
and there was absolutely
nothing to lose.

754
00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:39,240
I think Gill Sans
became again representative

755
00:45:39,240 --> 00:45:41,960
of that kind of utopian idealism,

756
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:46,480
almost an optimistic belief
in what culture could bring

757
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:47,800
and society could bring.

758
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:51,760
MUSIC: TRUE FAITH
by New Order

759
00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:57,920
It bought that romantic
hope for the future

760
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:01,000
that was so absent
in the rest of society.

761
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:04,360
This is a really good example

762
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:06,400
of your punching
out your headline in Gill.

763
00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:08,720
The idea, really, was how
many variations

764
00:46:08,720 --> 00:46:10,640
could you get out of
the same typeface

765
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:12,360
without having to jump fonts?

766
00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:15,120
So you were wanting to stick
with just the one typeface,

767
00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:17,400
but use it in as many
different ways as possible.

768
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:21,360
Absolutely. So here you have
it kind of bold, wide spaced.

769
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:23,320
Here you have it bold condensed.

770
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:26,680
Upper, lower case here, you have it
bold condensed, but wide spaced.

771
00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:28,960
So we're using it for
so many different levels

772
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:30,760
of articulation and information.

773
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:36,400
Neville's typeface inspiration
started from quite a young age.

774
00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:42,280
I came across this,
a book from my childhood.

775
00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:43,800
It's an encyclopaedia -

776
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:45,600
and then realised
that this was all Gill,

777
00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:50,640
and it's Gill at a kind of
super-sized setting here.

778
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:52,720
You wouldn't normally do this.

779
00:46:52,720 --> 00:46:55,640
So what they've done is
they've recognised in Gill

780
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:59,200
the ability to punch
out and articulate content,

781
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:02,160
and I think that must have sat
somewhere in the back of my mind.

782
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:06,400
A typeface that once had

783
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:09,880
unfashionable and
authoritarian undertones

784
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:12,240
was now being used
against the establishment.

785
00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:24,480
It was even at the
typeface of choice

786
00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:26,800
on many of the
anti-poll tax leaflets.

787
00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:31,720
It's interesting, isn't it, that
Gill's used quite a lot

788
00:47:31,720 --> 00:47:34,600
by generally left-wing or
campaigning groups,

789
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:36,680
but you don't see a lot
of it used by anybody else.

790
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:41,120
No, the hard right tend to avoid it
completely for some strange reason.

791
00:47:41,120 --> 00:47:43,160
Maybe because it has slightly softer

792
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:45,240
or slightly more
romantic connotations.

793
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:50,320
Whilst Gill Sans was
invading the country again,

794
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:53,120
Johnston was being virtually
annihilated in London.

795
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:02,000
London transport were using more
contemporary-looking typefaces.

796
00:48:03,240 --> 00:48:05,840
Johnston's range
of sizes was limited,

797
00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:08,720
and not digitised
for photo typesetting,

798
00:48:08,720 --> 00:48:11,480
making it impossible
to use on a computer.

799
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:17,120
What was once the go-to choice
for a clear and concise design

800
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:20,960
was now being substituted by
other types -

801
00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:22,880
including Gill Sans.

802
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:28,520
Fearful for Johnston's future,

803
00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:32,000
London transport
turned to design agencies

804
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:34,800
to try and save it
from a cruel death.

805
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:38,360
It was a job that was entrusted
to a young graphic designer

806
00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:39,680
called Eiichi Kono,

807
00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:43,400
who needed a plan to digitise
it for a computerised industry.

808
00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:51,200
Johnston was originally designed
by Edward Johnston

809
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:55,880
for just display purpose,
station names,

810
00:48:55,880 --> 00:49:00,920
but London transport couldn't
use for many different purposes.

811
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:06,200
When it's small in size,
then it's not legible enough.

812
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:09,280
Readable enough.

813
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:16,280
Eiichi began painstakingly
redesigning the typeface by hand.

814
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:21,480
Every day, I was drawing
and then scratching it

815
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:24,280
with a scalpel and retouching
it.

816
00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:29,040
This process took Eiichi
around 18 months to complete.

817
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:34,320
For the first time ever, Johnston
was digitised for use on a computer.

818
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:39,240
A typeface that was originally only
available in a couple of weights

819
00:49:39,240 --> 00:49:40,600
now came in many more.

820
00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:47,240
So, altogether I made
eight different variations.

821
00:49:47,240 --> 00:49:49,240
Light, medium, bold.

822
00:49:49,240 --> 00:49:54,200
Then when the typeface is reduced,
in a 6-point or 4-point,

823
00:49:55,640 --> 00:50:00,000
in a small size,
it works much better -

824
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:04,520
and after the digitisation was done,

825
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:06,560
Johnston survived again.

826
00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:11,240
New Johnston was born.

827
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:16,320
It meant London Transport could
continue to use it on Tubes,

828
00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:18,520
buses and signs.

829
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:23,280
Also, Mayor of London started
using it as official typeface,

830
00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:27,720
so I'm very pleased and proud of it,
and I feel lucky.

831
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:33,760
Still I feel, Johnston and Gill Sans

832
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:38,560
both are absolutely fantastic

833
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:41,000
humanist sans-serif,

834
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:45,360
and many other similar ones
already come out,

835
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:50,320
that not really kind of, you know,
surpass their popularity.

836
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:56,600
As new Johnston returned
to the safety of its home,

837
00:50:56,600 --> 00:51:01,360
at the same time, Gill Sans was
being re-popularised as well.

838
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:04,480
In fact, Gill was about to be
the trusted typeface of choice

839
00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:06,400
for Britain's newest channel.

840
00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:22,840
Good afternoon. It's a pleasure
to be able to say to you,

841
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:24,720
welcome to Channel 4.

842
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:32,480
The look of Channel 4 was created
by designer Martin Lambie-Nairn.

843
00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:35,800
All of the channel's on-screen text

844
00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:39,040
and many of their printed adverts
were all in Gill Sans.

845
00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:44,160
An ironic choice,
given that the logo

846
00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:46,320
was very much of a serif design -

847
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:48,560
and yet they worked
so well together...

848
00:51:50,360 --> 00:51:52,920
..and it appeared
a contagious choice.

849
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:57,800
Much of the television media also
started switching to Gill Sans.

850
00:51:57,800 --> 00:52:00,160
It was concise and easy to read.

851
00:52:01,400 --> 00:52:05,360
In 1997, the BBC followed suit.

852
00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:08,120
They wanted a logo
and a typeface style

853
00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:11,560
that would unify the entire
corporation.

854
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:12,960
Sound familiar?

855
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:18,800
At this time,
the BBC had a different logo

856
00:52:18,800 --> 00:52:21,640
for almost every
TV and radio channel.

857
00:52:24,280 --> 00:52:26,800
A real mishmash
of different designs.

858
00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:29,520
Something needed to be done.

859
00:52:30,680 --> 00:52:35,080
So, they turned to the same man
who helped stylise Channel 4.

860
00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:38,560
The BBC logo had got out of control.

861
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:41,200
Just about anybody who had
a budget in the BBC

862
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:42,600
would commission a new logo.

863
00:52:42,600 --> 00:52:47,640
The main logo itself was made up of
the four-colour printing process.

864
00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:51,440
And so, it didn't work
in black-and-white.

865
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:53,120
So, not only did we
have that problem,

866
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:58,160
we had 180 different logo types
that the BBC was sort of using,

867
00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:04,040
so the entire identity of
the BBC was being fragmented,

868
00:53:04,040 --> 00:53:05,400
rather than strengthened.

869
00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:13,240
The old, tired BBC logo,
set in an italic typeface,

870
00:53:13,240 --> 00:53:15,480
was becoming slightly
hard to read at an angle.

871
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:26,520
Martin Lambie-Nairn and his team
were tasked with redesigning it,

872
00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:28,120
moving from a slant...

873
00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:31,840
..to a square.

874
00:53:31,840 --> 00:53:35,080
Quite frankly, the old logo just
simply didn't work on television,

875
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:38,400
because it was...it was sloping,

876
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:41,600
and the engineering
of television is that!

877
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:43,720
So, it broke up.

878
00:53:43,720 --> 00:53:45,880
So, we needed to create a logo type

879
00:53:45,880 --> 00:53:50,800
that was going to be technically
better and simpler,

880
00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:52,040
and I looked at Gill

881
00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:55,280
because of the association
that Gill had with the BBC,

882
00:53:55,280 --> 00:53:58,840
and, of course, all the sculptures
around the building are his.

883
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:04,120
I think the typeface brought a
kind of simplicity to the channel.

884
00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:06,800
We were always aiming to
keep things simple and clear...

885
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:10,520
..and it is a very unfussy typeface,

886
00:54:10,520 --> 00:54:12,480
so it probably did
emphasise that clarity.

887
00:54:20,280 --> 00:54:24,400
But this evolution of
design continues today.

888
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:26,680
Soon, there will be a
new type on the block.

889
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:32,760
After 20 years, the process
is happening all over again.

890
00:54:34,160 --> 00:54:38,960
The BBC plan to phase out
Gill Sans and replace it with a new,

891
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:43,560
in-house typeface - one that
has used Gill as an inspiration.

892
00:54:44,720 --> 00:54:47,280
So, for me, it
begs just one question -

893
00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:49,320
why do they want to change it?

894
00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:54,920
Gill Sans was designed in the
1920s for the printed page.

895
00:54:54,920 --> 00:54:57,640
Online, it sort of
falls down somewhat.

896
00:54:57,640 --> 00:54:59,760
It's not digitally optimised,

897
00:54:59,760 --> 00:55:01,520
it doesn't have great legibility

898
00:55:01,520 --> 00:55:04,560
when you look at long-form
journalism, for instance.

899
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:07,440
So, we needed to improve that area.

900
00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:10,440
We currently license a number of
fonts - we'd reduce that spend,

901
00:55:10,440 --> 00:55:12,280
we would own a typeface of our own.

902
00:55:14,320 --> 00:55:16,160
For the past two years,

903
00:55:16,160 --> 00:55:20,360
David and his team have been working
on a new style of BBC lettering,

904
00:55:20,360 --> 00:55:23,040
a typeface designed
for the digital age.

905
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:28,240
So, shall we take a look at it?
I'm very excited.

906
00:55:28,240 --> 00:55:32,080
It's still work in progress,
but I'm desperate to show you.

907
00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:35,480
This is the new typographic
look of the BBC.

908
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:37,480
You're getting a
first glimpse at it now.

909
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:39,680
It's still in production,
but it's very exciting.

910
00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:41,720
That is absolutely beautiful,
isn't it?

911
00:55:43,240 --> 00:55:45,800
It's so lovely to see
these echoes of Gill Sans

912
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:48,440
as well, on the S, for example.

913
00:55:48,440 --> 00:55:52,960
This Q and the B,
without that little corner on them.

914
00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:56,480
One of the things that our
typographers talk about

915
00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:59,520
is the sort of Spartan elegance
of Gill Sans.

916
00:55:59,520 --> 00:56:01,440
We've removed the spurs from these,

917
00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:03,760
which give it a real sort
of friendly character.

918
00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:08,160
When you put the B opposite the P,
they're not identical.

919
00:56:08,160 --> 00:56:10,520
There's definite echoes
of where we've come from,

920
00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:11,880
from the heritage of Gill.

921
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:16,040
On closer inspection
of the new BBC design,

922
00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:17,840
there are several obvious changes

923
00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:20,840
that jump out when comparing
it against Gill Sans.

924
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:24,680
Gone are the perfectly
circular Os

925
00:56:24,680 --> 00:56:28,560
and Roman-style, quirky flourishes
on the Ts and Gs...

926
00:56:30,560 --> 00:56:34,640
..now replaced with lettering that
uses far greater spacing on screen.

927
00:56:36,440 --> 00:56:39,400
And no-one's worried about the fact
that it actually takes up more real

928
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:42,000
estate on-screen? Yeah - but to
tick all those legibility boxes,

929
00:56:42,000 --> 00:56:43,880
you have to make it
breathe a bit wider...

930
00:56:43,880 --> 00:56:47,960
Right. ..for it to work in, say,
a wearable, or on tiny screens,

931
00:56:47,960 --> 00:56:49,760
or whatever the future might hold.

932
00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:53,600
The spacing's wider,
it's bringing a better legibility,

933
00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:55,200
giving it a little
more breathing space.

934
00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:58,280
It must feel quite exciting

935
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:01,080
to be looking at all these wonderful
new typeface ranges.

936
00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:02,880
It's incredibly exciting.

937
00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:08,240
It is so interesting to see this
new BBC typeface in the flesh...

938
00:57:09,720 --> 00:57:12,760
..but I can't help but wonder
whether we've slightly lost

939
00:57:12,760 --> 00:57:16,600
some of the panache that
Gill Sans brought to it.

940
00:57:16,600 --> 00:57:19,160
Who knows?
Maybe it'll be back in the future.

941
00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:23,560
After all, Gill Sans is the
comeback king of all typefaces.

942
00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:33,280
For self-confessed
design geeks like me,

943
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:38,120
it is truly inspirational that these
two classic British typefaces

944
00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:39,960
are still influential,

945
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:44,520
still evolving and
still appropriate for modern times.

946
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:53,120
Whether it's the past
glories of the Underground,

947
00:57:53,120 --> 00:57:58,040
cult album covers
or brand-new designs,

948
00:57:58,040 --> 00:58:01,080
these two timeless British types

949
00:58:01,080 --> 00:58:04,040
are as important and relevant now

950
00:58:04,040 --> 00:58:07,080
as they were a century ago.

951
00:58:07,080 --> 00:58:12,120
Johnston and Gill Sans convey
that sense of trust and tradition,

952
00:58:13,040 --> 00:58:15,560
quintessential British values,

953
00:58:15,560 --> 00:58:20,600
that no matter how turbulent the
times, you'll get home - safely.

954
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:22,840
Just follow the signs.

955
00:58:25,120 --> 00:58:28,880
MUSIC: Silk
by Wolf Alice