If you frequent our national parks you will definitely recognize the iconic typeface featured on the signs throughout but have you ever wondered it’s origin and if its available for the public to use? In walks Design Outside (DO) Studio Founder and Associate Professor of Design at the University of Kansas, Jeremy Shellhorn ,who got curious, did some digging and found out the answer:
“I saw those familiar words. Set “National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior” — style. I wondered if it actually was a typeface or “font” that anyone could download and use? Do park rangers have this as a typeface on their computers to set in their word docs, pdfs and power point slides?
I had a sketchbook with me and took some rubbings of the letterforms and asked my friend Miles Barger, the Visual Information Specialist for Rocky, if he had the typeface. He asked the sign shop. No one has it? Turns out it isn’t a typeface at all but a system of paths, points and curves that a router follows.
So my design colleague, Andrea Herstowski, students Chloe Hubler and Jenny O’Grady, NPS Ranger Miles Barger and myself decided to make this router typeface a thing.”
Really cool little tool if you are a fan of the National Parks and maybe would like to do something custom for a decoration around the house or as a gift to fellow enthusiast. Thanks Jeremy! FIND DOWNLOAD HERE. 
images from nationalparktypeface.com
