VOL. 1
REVIEW
RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
TYPOGRAPHY: NATIONAL PARK TYPEFACE GOING TO GOOGLE FONTS Visual communication design professors Andrea Herstowski and Jeremy Shellhorn received $18,000 of project funding from Google to refresh and redesign their National Park Typeface for the Google Fonts Platform. The typeface, inspired by the router bit-carved text on wooden signs at National Parks across the country, was first created in 2018 by Herstowski, Shellhorn, and students in the design department’s Design Outside Studio. David Crossland, project manager at Google Fonts, approached Herstowski and Shellhorn after seeing the National Park Typeface featured on Fast Company and Kottke.org. As a fan of the project, Crossland wanted the typeface updated, the character set expanded, and developed to function as a variable font for inclusion on the Google Fonts website.
Ben Hoepner, an undergraduate visual communication design student, was selected to provide technical assistance for the project and awarded a scholarship made possible by the funding. Hoepner is working with Herstowski to redraw and expand the character set to support more languages. The new and expanded National Park Typeface will be available this Spring 2022 at www.fonts.google.com.
