Interstate is a digital typeface designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in the period 1993–1999, and licensed by Font Bureau. The typeface is closely related to the FHWA Series fonts, a signage alphabet drawn for the United States Federal Highway Administration in 1949.
Frere-Jones' Interstate face, while optimal for signage, has refinements making it suitable for text setting in print and on-screen, and gained popularity as such in the 90s. Due to its wide spacing it is best suited for display usage in print, but Frere-Jones later designed another signage typeface, Whitney, published by Hoefler & Frere-Jones, which bears a resemblance to its ancestor while being less flamboyant and more economical for general print usage, in body copy or headlines.
The terminals of ascending and descending strokes are cut at an angle to the stroke (see lowercase t, and l), and on curved strokes (see lowercase e and s), terminals are drawn at a 90° angle to the stroke, positioning them at an angle to the baseline. Counters are open, even in the bold and bold condensed weights, further contributing to legibility.
The font is used by a number of large organisations in their logotype and branding materials. Notable examples include Sainsbury's Supermarkets, recent signage for Southwest Airlines, Invesco Perpetual, UK rail company c2c, Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, Lamborghini, Red Hat, Cognizant Technology Solutions and CISV International. In May 2008 Ernst & Young adopted the use of Interstate in marketing materials and reports as part of a new global visual identity.
In 2004, The Weather Channel started using the fonts on-air and on IntelliStar systems. It was added to TWC's WeatherSTAR XL in a graphical update in 2005. It was mainly retired in 2008, for Helvetica Neue and Akzidenz-Grotesk.
In November 2006 the US Army launched its Army Strong ad campaign, utilising Interstate as its primary typeface for all ad material.
The 2010 videogame, GoldenEye 007, uses Interstate Light Condensed for all in-game text.
This font is since used for their on-air newscasts and general branding for the Global Television Network stations.
Famous quotes containing the word interstate:
“At bottom, I mean profoundly at bottom, the FBI has nothing to do with Communism, it has nothing to do with catching criminals, it has nothing to do with the Mafia, the syndicate, it has nothing to do with trust-busting, it has nothing to do with interstate commerce, it has nothing to do with anything but serving as a church for the mediocre. A high church for the true mediocre.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)