Westminster (typeface)

An example of the Westminster typeface

Westminster is a printing and display typeface inspired by the machine-readable numbers printed on cheques[1] and designed by Leo Maggs.[2]

In the 1960s, Leo Bragg was working at the Hazell Sun Group’s design studio in Covent Garden, London. At that time, he was commanded to create a futuristic style title for an article of About the House (the magazine of The Friends of Covent Garden Opera House). Bragg based the lettres of that title on the MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) system, E-13B, used on bank cheques. He then continued to design the rest of the letters of the alphabet in his spare time, basing their proportions on that of the Gill Sans typeface.[3]

The work was presented to Letraset, but it was Robert Norton, founder of the Photoscript Ltd photo-typesetting company, who decided to produce it.[3] The font was named by Norton and, according to Microsoft, it received its name from the then Westminster Bank Limited (now NatWest) from the United Kingdom, that helped fund its production.[1]

Since its design, the typeface has been strongly associated with computers—especially in the late 1960s and early-to-mid-1970s. It is used frequently to indicate computer involvement in television series, films, books, and comics.

References

  1. 1 2 Westminster (Microsoft)
  2. ↑ "Westminster". Luc Devroye. Retrieved on 9 May 2016.
  3. 1 2 The truth about Westminster (the font!), MERCER DESIGN]

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.