Clearer signs mean faster reaction time and safer roads. “In all caps, every word is a rectangle,” said Montalbano, who was wearing black jeans and a leather jacket.
#CLEARVIEW FONT CITY OF PHOENIX DRIVERS#
When “Church Street” is set in mixed case, the pattern of verticals and curves helps drivers make out the words more quickly. The benefits of mixed case go beyond politesse readers identify words by their shapes. “In our capital letters that start out with a bowl, like a ‘B,’ ‘P,’ ‘R,’ ‘D,’ there’s a little arc that goes above the line to open it up a bit,” Meeker said. In the middle of Park Row, he spotted it: “Church Street Best Route.” To make Clearview clearer, Meeker and Montalbano gave it roomy interiors. He stood at the eastern edge of City Hall Park and scanned for the font he began working on in the early nineties. Meeker, a sixty-five-year-old Oregon transplant, wore hiking shoes and an olive fleece. In the coming years, Clearview will appear on all two hundred and fifty thousand of New York’s street signs, but for now it’s a rarity. The other day, Donald Meeker and James Montalbano, the designers of Clearview, met in lower Manhattan to admire their handiwork.
A federal mandate requires that old signs using Highway Gothic font in all capital letters be replaced with mixed-case signage New York City has chosen a new typeface, called Clearview. But soon the city will provide a more subdued directional experience, aimed in part at helping aging drivers read more easily on the road. By the same token, New York City street signs have been shouting for years. In online communication, writing in uppercase letters often denotes yelling-a convention that older e-mail users don’t always seem to grasp.
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