In November, Red Hat released a major update to Overpass – the open source typeface used by the Red Hat brand identity.

This update includes 20 style variations including the new Overpass Mono.
Downloads and samples are available at overpassfont.org

Standing on a rich history of design for public good.

Creativity always builds on the past ”  – Lawrence Lessig

Overpass is a modern digitization of the public domain standard: Highway Gothic.

If you live in (or have travelled to) Australia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, The Netherlands, Spain, Venezuela, Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, India, Mongolia, Ecuador, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, or even New Zealand, you will have likely seen this style of typography being used in road signage.

And that’s why Overpass is key to the Red Hat design language; a large portion of the world is abundantly familiar with the brief and helpful text on their roads and highways.

Open standards are core to Red Hat

By using this familiar aesthetic associated with a trusted public good, our aim is that some subtext about Red Hat’s culture and contributions to open source shine through.

Red Hat assists your I.T. journey

Just as open communication standards guide the public to work better together in large groups, Red Hat’s model of bringing open innovation to the enterprise helps stabilise useful technology at scale for the world.

Red Hat’s loudest voice is the code it contributes.

This release debuts an entirely new series, Overpass Mono, for branded representation of source code and system commands.

More information for designers has been posted the Red Hat Open Studio blog.


About the author

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver reliable and high-performing Linux, hybrid cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies.

Read full bio