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One station name in three scripts

A lettering study of a platform sign that gives one name in three scripts, balanced so that no line looks less important.

Discipline

Year

Scope, ,

All projects

A station sign displaying the name in three scripts, with the platform and railway tracks behind it.

TypeSelf-initiated study, not a commission

ReferencesTwo CC0 photographs

ScriptsThree

OutputA type-pairing sheet

Question

The board stacks one station name in Malayalam, Devanagari and Latin capitals, black on yellow, on two posts at the platform edge. The three lines look equally important, although each script has its own heights and density.

Study

We traced the three lines and compared their visual weight rather than their size. Then we set an invented two-word station name in three matched typefaces, adjusting each line until all three held their own at the distance of a carriage window.

A yellow platform sign on two posts, lettered in Malayalam, Devanagari and Latin capitals
The reference board: one name, three scripts, one colour.
Maroon arrow signs on a wooden post, with place names given in two languages
The fingerpost from the route card study, where two languages share one line.

Kept

Equal weight, not equal size. Our multilingual sign drafts now begin with this trace-and-compare sheet.