Road trips usually sound fun at first thought. After the first couple hours they can stop being so fun. However, on a recent day trip from Baltimore to Chicago, I took notice of a certain type/branding culture that I usually ignore. It’s not elegant by any means, in fact it’s often a dirty, weathered and peeling culture.

Freight trucking is a bold and sleepless industry, one full of grizzled men and gun-slinging Yosemite Sams. And with tough attitudes, we expect tough branding. Maybe. As irrelevant as each truck feels from the next, certain brands come with not-so-bad typography. Now, the images I am sharing are by no means beautiful; honestly, they each feel dated and exist outside of any significant design circle.

With that said, how many times have you pantomimed a trucker’s gesture in hopes of a blaring horn salute in return? In the same small way that truckers are not so tough after all, it is possible that the branding might also contain evidence of class, or at least individual pride. Again, just an observation, but here are a few samples mostly from the Ohio Interstate.

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