On August 5, 2019 I set out in a Volkswagen van to drive across the country to answer a simple question — who designed the typeface used on the green US highway signs?
My initial investigations revealed that origin of these letters has not been documented in any coherent narrative. To discover the genesis of this typeface I drove the highways and byways of the United States over the course of four months traveling 26,000 miles across 49 states. I shot hours of video, and took more than 100,000 photographs of traffic signs on all types of roads. I spent weeks in academic and government archives across the country digging through boxes of documents from the mid-twentieth century gathering thousands of pages of communication about the Standard Alphabet in the words of those who promulgated it. The goal of this project is to create a documentary that shares this unknown story, but after this preliminary exploration aspects of the story still beg answers.
About Me
I teach graphic design at Keene State College in New Hampshire. I have been teaching graphic design for 25 years and ten years ago I developed an interest in the letters on US highway signs. It seemed that the origin of them was shrouded in the utilitarian amnesia of the California Division of Highways. Attributed to a transportation psychologist from Hawaii named Ted Forbes, the story stops in the summer of 1950 when the study he directed was conducted. The capital letters themselves owe their origin to the 1935 release of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, but there is scant evidence on how the lower case developed. Many hours of searching have not to date revealed the answers, but I continue to seek and travel in pursuit of them.
EXHIBITION
I have presently taken a year-long sabbatical dedicated to finishing a documentary that reveals the origin of the FHWA Series Standard Alphabet, the typeface used on all US highway signage. If granted, these funds will partially support my field research into the present state of Standard Alphabet usage on signage throughout countries around the globe which have traditionally used it. I have already gathered tens of thousands of signage photographs, many hours of interviews, and nine thousand archive documents from my journeys across the US and South America. With this material, I am producing several teaser clips to use in promoting this documentary while I continue the work on it. This documentary about the origin of the typeface used on highway signs around the world is a service to the fields of both highway safety and graphic design. It is an ideal and appropriate vehicle for advancing my independent scholarship and, through my success, promoting Keene State College.
Previous Research
I have been researching this topic since 2016. From August to December 2019, I spent 129 days traveling 26,000 miles across the United States to 49 states, taking over 130,000 photographs and videos of traffic signs on highways, rural routes, and city streets. Along the way, I interviewed various academics and transportation professionals and edited several clips for inclusion in the documentary.
South America
In December of 2022, I embarked on a 5,000-mile motorcycle journey throughout Chile and Argentina documenting the road signs. The FHWA sign typeface, Standard Alphabet, was adopted by these and most other Central and South American countries in the 1970s, following the lead of the United States in establishing safe and navigable roadways. My research in South America led to the discovery that Chile is transitioning to a typeface called Ruta. Many Chilean signs still use our lettering while major highways are using the new typeface.
Canada and Alaska
In the summer of 2023, I took a six-week, 14,000-mile research trip to Deadhorse, Alaska at the Arctic Circle. Deadhorse is the northern terminus of the Trans-American Highway on a 414-mile stretch of mostly dirt road called the Dalton Highway. I documented signage across six provinces of Canada — Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia — as well as the Yukon territory on my way to Alaska.
The World
While I have traveled North America and some South American countries, many other countries around the world use the Standard Alphabet or typefaces that are derived directly from the FHWA series. This research trip will cover most of the remaining countries which use the Standard Alphabet. After a summer road trip visiting archives around the United States, I will travel eastward around the world beginning in London and northern Europe, South Africa, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii, then back to the United States.