Granby is a sans-serif typeface designed and released by the

Stephenson Blake Stephenson Blake is an engineering company based in Sheffield, England. The company was active from the early 19th century as a type founder, remaining until the 1990s as the last active type foundry in Britain, since when it has diversified in ...

type foundry A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

from 1930. Granby is influenced by a contemporary British sans-serif design, the

Johnston typeface Johnston (or Johnston Sans) is a sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. The typeface was commissioned in 1913 by Frank Pick, commercial manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (also known as ...

or Railway Alphabet (1916), the proprietary face of what became

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The U ...

, and

Gill Sans Gill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill and released by the British branch of Monotype from 1928 onwards. Gill Sans is based on Edward Johnston's 1916 "Underground Alphabet", the corporate font of London Undergro ...

(1928) which had recently been released and become popular. Roy Millington's history of Stephenson Blake also cites Futura as an influence. Like both Johnston and Gill Sans, Granby has an upper-case influenced by

Roman square capitals Roman square capitals, also called ''capitalis monumentalis'', inscriptional capitals, elegant capitals and ''capitalis quadrata'', are an ancient Roman form of writing, and the basis for modern capital letters. Square capitals are characterized ...

and a lower-case inspired by traditional "old-style" serif letters, making it an example of what is now called the

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

style of sans-serif fonts. Granby's regular style is a robust design bolder than conventional body text fonts, making it suitable for headings and posters and also for legible text at smaller sizes. Granby resembles Johnston with diamond-shaped dots ( tittles) on the 'i' and 'j' and a wide ‘a’. A difference is its ‘g’, a ‘single-storey’ design influenced by handwriting. According to Mike Ashworth of Transport for London, London Transport itself made some use of Granby by the 1960s due to the limited availability of Johnston type. Granby Elephant and Gill Kayo or Ultra Bold styles

Granby Elephant and Gill Kayo or Ultra Bold styles

Several styles of Granby were released to extend the design, including condensed weights, an inlined style and 'Granby Elephant', an ultra-bold design. As with many sans-serifs, rather than a true italic, an

oblique Oblique may refer to: * an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / ) *Oblique angle, in geometry * Oblique triangle, in geometry * Oblique lattice, in geometry * Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the ...

was offered, in which the letters were slanted but not altered to take on more handwriting influences. While never as popular as Gill Sans on the commercial market, Granby nonetheless remained in use with revivals in

phototypesetting Phototypesetting is a method of setting type. It uses photography to make columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper. It has been made obsolete by the popularity of the personal computer and desktop publishing ( digital typesetting). T ...

and

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

versions. A digitisation of some weights is sold by Elsner+Flake and

Scangraphic Scangraphic is a division of Dr. Böger Duplomat Apparate GmbH & Co.KG, based in Wedel near Hamburg, Germany. It was founded by Bernd Holthusen and Knut Schmiedl. Mannesmann AG acquired Scangraphic in 1989, and the company was renamed Mannesma ...

; Red Rooster Fonts has also digitised the Elephant style. It was appropriately used in adverts by the London company Granby Cycles in the 1930s. Wayfarer, by Jeremy Tankard, is a loose revival of the condensed style, commissioned by

Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Con ...

as their corporate font based on its local heritage. (It also has some influences of Stephenson Blake's well-known Grotesque series.) Jeremy Mickel's Specter is a loose adaptation with true italic and an inline version drawn by Douglas Hayes. Dieter Hofrichter's Halifax is also in the same style.

References

{{notelist, 30em

External links

Stephenson Blake specimen book
photographed by Romesh Naik
Granby Inline

Granby Shadow

Example use
on Fonts in Use

Humanist sans-serif typefaces Display typefaces Stephenson Blake typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1930