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Gravesend Sans
by Device
Individual Styles from $39.00 USD
Complete family of 9 fonts: $219.00 USD
Gravesend Sans Font Family was
designed by
Rian Hughes and
published by
Device. Gravesend Sans contains
9
styles and family package options.
More about this family
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Best ValueFamily Packages
- Individual Styles
- Tech Specs
- Licensing
Per Style:
$24.33 USD
Pack of 9 styles:
$219.00 USD
About Gravesend Sans Font Family
Smart, legible and elegant, Gravesend Sans is a based on the unique typeface used for the iconic grass-green signage for the Southern Railway. In existence from 1923 to 1948, when the network was nationalised, the Southern Railway linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, the South coast resorts and Kent. The same design was also used for the ‘hawkeye’ signs on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, differentiated by black letters on a yellow background.
Reference for each letter was taken from vintage ‘target’ station nameplates and other platform signage. The rarest letters were the Q, seen in Queens Road Battersea, the X, seen in East Brixton, and the Z, used in Maze Hill, site of an infamous train crash in 1958. Being hand-made, the letters often differ in width and thickness. There was no lower case. The Bluebell Railway, a heritage steam line, runs over part of the old Southern Railway network and uses a very similar type.
The design of the numbers differed considerably, but here have been taken from the Device 112 Hours font Smokebox. As well identifying platforms, they were used on the front of the steam engine’s smokebox, hence the name, and stylistically are more in keeping with the letters than some of the squarer versions that can be seen in old photographs.
William Caslon IV is credited with the first Latin sans-serif type, shown in a 1816 Caslon specimen book. ‘Two Lines English Egyptian’, as it was called, was caps-only, and there are several other correlations between that type design and this one.
Includes a selection of authentic arrows and manicules, plus abbreviated ligatures such as ‘St.’ (Saint or Street) ‘Rd.’ (Road) and ‘Jn.’ (Junction). The Cameo version includes many graphic banner elements that can be freely combined.
Designers: Rian Hughes
Publisher: Device
Foundry: Device
Design Owner: Device
MyFonts debut: Jan 24, 2019
Gravesend Sans
About Device
Device Fonts is the font arm of Rian Hughes’ Device studio, operating out of Kew Gardens, London. An early contributor to FontShop’s FontFont range, Device Fonts was launched in 1997 to carry Hughes’ growing library. It has released over 200 original typefaces covering more than 1000 individual weights, including custom designs for clients as diverse as Mac User, 2000AD and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Rian studied at the London College of Communication in London before working for an advertising agency, Smash Hits, i-D magazine and a series of record sleeve design companies. Under the studio banner Device, he provides design, custom type and illustration for advertising campaigns, record sleeves, book jackets, graphic novels and television. He has designed posters for Tokyo fashion company Jun Co.’s Yellow Boots chain, the animated on-board safety film for Virgin Airlines, Eurostar’s poster campaign, a collection of Hawaiian shirts, a range of watches for Swatch, the brochure for MTV Europe’s Music Awards, and numerous book jacket illustrations and CD covers. He has designed many logos for DC, Marvel, Valiant, Image and other comic book companies for such titles as Batman, the X-Men, James Bond, The Avengers and Spider-Man. Long connected with the world of comics, Rian Hughes' first graphic novel was ‘The Science Service’ for Belgian publisher Magic Strip. This was followed by ‘Dare’ for IPC’s short-lived ‘Revolver’, an “iconoclastic revamp of the ’50s comic hero Dan Dare”, written by Grant Morrison. His strips from the Galaxy’s Greatest have been collected in ‘Yesterday’s Tomorrows’ (‘Dare’, ‘Really and Truly’ plus others) and ‘Tales from Beyond Science’ (written by Mark Millar, John Smith and Alan McKenzie). More recently he wrote and drew a ‘Batman: Black and White’ tale, contributed to ‘Vertigo: Magenta’, designed the map of the DC Multiverse and was reunited with Morrison for two stories for ‘Heavy Metal’ magazine. He has contributed to numerous international exhibitions, lectured widely both in the UK and internationally, and a one-man show of his work was held in 2003 the Conningsby Gallery, London. A retrospective monograph, “Art, Commercial” was published in 2002, and "Ten Year Itch", a celebration of the first ten years of Device Fonts, was published in 2005. Recent books include "Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s", and the all-ages wordless graphic novel "I Am A Number", "Soho Dives, Soho Divas" collects his burlesque drawings, and he sets out his memetics manifesto in Cult-Ure: Ideas Can Be Dangerous. A collection of his logo designs, “Logo a Gogo”, was released in 2018 by Korero Press He has a collection of Thunderbirds memorabilia, a fridge full of vodka, and a stack of easy listening albums which he plays very quietly. www.rianhughes.com www.devicefonts.co.ukThe Premium foundry page can be viewed Here.
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