Signs & Lines

INTERSTATE

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

SIGNS & LINES

TOPOGRAPHY

Exploring Topography through Interstate

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

THE ROAD TO INTERSTATE

INTERSTATE

TOPOGRAPHY

The family is a reinterpretation of the typeface Highway Gothic, which has long been the official typeface for American highway signage for decades. Its design is ultimately based on signage alphabets developed in the late 1940s by Dr. Theodore Forbes, assisted by both J.E. Penton and E.E. Radek.

Interstate is a digital sans-serif typeface created by Tobias Frere-Jones in 1993–1999 and licensed by the Font Bureau. Originally, it was created as the official signage alphabet for the United States Federal Highway Administration. The Interstate typeface was purposefully designed as an homage to the Highway Gothic typeface, earlier designed by Ted Forbes in 1949. The type was used in, logos, advertising campaigns, as well as in news broadcasting as it gained more popularity. The versatility and legibility made it perfectly suitable for use on both print and on screen. —fontsinuse.com

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INTERSTATE

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

LAY OF THE LAND THE ART OF TOPOGRAPHY Topography is a broad term used to describe the detailed study of the earth's surface. This includes changes in on surface such as mountains and valleys as well as features such as rivers and roads. It also includes the surface of other planets, the moon, asteroids and meteors. Topography is closely linked to some practices of surveying, which is the practice of determining as well as recording positions of points in relation to one another.

While topography may be a field of Earth Science that is the study of the shape and features of the whole enitre surface of the Earth, topographic art transcends actual boundaries of pre-existing patterns. Hanging between someplace in the physical and emotional geography, is topographic art that can be a huge psychedelic mix of creativity, sciences, as well as culture. It’s beautiful and communicative works deconstruct the natural beauty TOPOGRAPHY

that surrounds us and reveals fragments of endlessness.

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TOPOGRAPHY

INTERSTATE

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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~!@#$%^&*(-)+=;:”<,.>?/

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INTERSTATE

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

TYPE ANATOMY 5

34 2

18

1

17 16 15 14 13

10

n O tHE OA

rd

TOPOGRAPHY

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01.

02.

03.

04.

05.

06.

07.

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VERTICAL STRESS CROSSBAR DIATCRITICS FINIAL STROKE BASELINE CLOSED COUNTER

7

20

08.

09.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

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APEX LINK ARM LEG ASCENDER CAP HEIGHT APERTURE

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12 11 21

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

X-HEIGHT SHOULDER BRANCH BOWL STEM BAR TIE

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INTERSTATE

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

TYPE IDENTIFICATION

WHAT TRAFFIC VIOLATON?

1.

2. Officer, I did not roll that stop sign, I simply perfomed a “California stop.”

SPEED

3.

4. They call it “rush hour,” but there’s hardly any “rushing” ever going on 5.

HIGHWAY PATROL CAMPING AHEAD 6.

7.

8.

No, we will not be stopping for direcions

DEER CROSSING AHEAD

ROUTE 93 CLOSED

9. OUTRAGED AND FED UP, I THREW MY KEYS INTO THE FIELD 10.

FOR THE LAST TIME, WE WILL NOT STOP FOR DIRECTIONS

Westbound

11.

12.

I HAVE GONE TO FIND MYSELF

13. IF I SHOULD RETURN BEFORE I GET BACK, KEEP ME HERE

TOPOGRAPHY

01.

02.

03.

04.

BOLD LIGHT COMPRESSED HAIRLINE ITALIC REGULAR

05.

06.

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08.

BLACK COMPRESSED LIGHT BOLD COMPRESSED EXTRA BOLD COMPRESSED

09.

10.

11.

12.

13.

REGULAR ITALIC EXTRA LIGHT COMPRESSED REGULAR COMPRESSED ULTRA BLACK BOLD COMPRESSED

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INTERSTATE

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

HOW CONTOUR LINES

DESCRIBE TERRAIN WHAT YOU SEE ON YOUR MAP 1440

1440

1840°

1840°

1760°

1760°

SIDE VIEW OF LANDMARK

1680° 1600° 1520°

1680° 1600° 1520°

1440°

1440°

STEEP SLOPE

GENTLE SLOPE

Simple trail maps are useful for trip planning but not for navigation in the field. Topographic maps go further, giving you the power to visualize three-dimensional terrain from a flat piece of paper. The feature that makes this possible is contour lines: Contour lines indicate the steepness of terrain. Contour lines connect points that share the same elevation: Where they’re close together (they never intersect), elevation is changing rapidly in short distance and the terrain is steep.

Where contour lines are wide apart, elevation is changing slowly, indicating a gentle slope.

TOPOGRAPHY

WHAT YOU SEE ON YOUR MAP

3-D VIEW OF LANDMARK

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MAP SCALES

The mapâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scale roughly tells you how detailed your map is. A 1:24000 scale, you could take for example, means one inch converts to around 24,000 inches in length in reality. If it were a larger scale, one such as 1:65,000, it means that a map covers a larger area, but that it would appear to display less detail.

SCALE 1:24000 O N E I N C H E Q U A L S A P P R OX . 0 . 3 8 M I L E S D AT U M I S M E A N S E A L E V E L

0

0.5

1

2 mi

TOPOGRAPHY

Maps also have a representative scale to help you visualize real-world distances. You can use this scale and a string or the edge of your compass to get a rough estimate about hiking distances on your map.

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INTERSTATE

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

SIGNS & SYMBOLS Topographic maps (as well as other maps) can include both human-made and natural features that are located on Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surface. These features can sometimes be represented by numerous different symbols. The map legend below briefly explains what some of those symbols on a map represent. main road

gully

minor road

boulder

large path

contour

small path indistinct path fence

knoll cliff open water

TOPOGRAPHY

power line form line

boulder field

depression

steep slope

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INTERSTATE

TOPOGRAPHY

“

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

”

The map is not the territory... The only usefulness of a map depends on similarity of structure between the empirical world and the map...

—Alfred Korzybski

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TOPOGRAPHY

INTERSTATE

TOBIAS FRERE-JONES // FONT BUREAU

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