There's life in the mundane.

in progressv0.3

Bus stop typography

Tracing the lettering on every bus stop flag between home and the station, to see if they are all the same. They are not.

Started
01.09.26
Last touched
(4 days ago)
Version
v0.3
Placeholder — a traced bus stop sign on paper.

London bus stop flags use the same typeface everywhere, officially. In practice, they have been replaced at different times by different contractors, and if you look closely the letters drift. The R is the giveaway. On the older flags the leg kicks out further.

So far: fourteen stops photographed, traced by hand, three versions of the R identified. The plan is to redraw each version properly and show them side by side, like a family tree for one letter.

stop        flag age   R-leg angle
-----------------------------------
library     ~1998      38°
parade      ~2012      31°
station     ~2019      31°

It might be nothing. It might be a zine.

Version history

  1. v0.3Started redrawing the oldest R as a vector. Harder than it looks.
  2. v0.2Traced the letters on tracing paper. Found three different versions of the R.
  3. v0.1Photographed 14 bus stop flags on the walk to the station.