Successful Presentation Strategies (Collection)

39. Signage Versus Documents

Drive Your PowerPoint Home

American Apparel, Staples, Knoll Furniture, and Lufthansa Airlines all share a common denominator with the New York subway system: Each of these diverse organizations uses the same popular typeface in its signage: Helvetica. A book called Helvetica and the New York City Subway System describes why their decision makers chose the font style:

For years, the signs in the New York City subway system were a bewildering hodge-podge of lettering styles, sizes, shapes, materials, colors, and messages.... Efforts to untangle this visual mess began in the mid-1960s, when the city transit authority ...