Gill Sans is a sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill. The typeface is based on Edward Johnston’s 1916 “Underground Alphabet”, the corporate font of London Underground. The London North Eastern Railway decided in 1933 to commission Eric Gill to hand paint a headboard for the Flying Scotsman train service.

 

The concept for the type specimen book is to look like Eric Gill’s journal when he created the typeface. Some of the pages are hand-drawn and based on original sketches of the typeface, have strong influence from railroad maps with an image of the Flying Scotsman train made completely out of letters, and a portrait of Eric Gill completely in letters.