Typeface Design for Grand Central
Reviving a terminal's lettering from the archive up
Grand Central is a typeface family designed by Tobias Frere-Jones with contributions from Devyani Mahadevan, commissioned during Grand Central Terminal's renovation that began in 1994. The Light style was developed from archive photographs documenting the terminal's Beaux-Arts lettering, itself rooted in American French Oldstyle signage traditions. The Bold was drawn to meet signage accessibility requirements, informed by period trade manuals.
Set in Grand Central
Insights
- Archive photographs served as the primary reference for the Light style, grounding it in the terminal's existing Beaux-Arts letterforms.
- The Bold was developed from period trade manuals rather than the photographic archive, responding to signage accessibility requirements.
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