Take a drive and you’ll see the designs that inspired Tobias Frere-Jones to draw the Interstate™ typeface family. It’s absorbed at a glance everywhere we drive. Interstate is a neo-grotesque sans serif typeface based on the signage alphabets of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. Clean, simple and easy on the eyes, few jobs are outside the range of the Interstate family. The design lends itself particularly well to headlines and subheads in newspapers and periodicals, in addition to branding and online applications.
Interstate History
Created by Tobias Frere-Jones, the Interstate font family has grown since its introduction in 1993. With the assistance of Cyrus Highsmith, the Interstate typeface has been expanded into a versatile range of text and display designs that now includes 40 fonts. The Interstate typeface offers compressed, condensed and regular widths and weights that range from hairline to ultra black. Also available is a series of pi fonts featuring symbols inspired by traffic signs.
The terminals of ascending and descending strokes are cut at an angle to the stroke, and curved stroke terminals are drawn at a 90 degree angle to the stroke. Lowercase x-heights are ample and counters are open – even in the bold and bold condensed weights contributing to legibility.
Interstate Usage
In addition to its original intention for text and display copy in print, Interstate excels when used on screen. The family has been adopted by a number of large organizations in their corporate branding and marketing materials. Companies include Sainsbury’s, Southwest Airlines, Invesco Perpetual, Lamborghini, and Ernst & Young.
