Toronto Subway / Bloor–Yonge

Inspiration

Toronto Subway / Bloor–Yonge

If you take the TTC regularly, you may be familiar with what’s possibly the most prominent Torontonian typeface, since it appears in most subway stations and in much of the TTC’s print materials. A geometric sans serif, it made its first appearance with the opening of the first subway line in 1954. In typical Torontonian humility, it was introduced with such little fanfare that no one knows who designed it, their name having been lost to history. Nevertheless, it lends an air of urbane elegance to our public transportation system with its bold, retro-futuristic aesthetic.

It’s experienced a sort of renaissance of late, having been revived in two different fonts. In 2004, local typographer David Vereschagin digitized it in a font called Toronto Subway based on rubbings he made of the original signage in TTC stations. More recently, in 2013, the TTC’s in-house design team created their own font, called Bloor-Yonge, which includes some subtle polish of the original designs for consistency and better legibility.

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