Bloomberg Font History: Headquarters Numbers and Digital Signage

Lisa Strausfeld’s Informationart project account documents Bloomberg media displays developed at Pentagram during 2001–2005. It describes a new numeric typeface based on Bloomberg’s then-current logotype, linking Paula Scher’s static signage with the digital-display team’s work. This is a precisely scoped environmental project, not a claim that the same font runs today’s Bloomberg Terminal, website or magazine.

Pentagram’s own account describes floor, room and elevator identification alongside directories and large media installations carrying Bloomberg news and data. The project connected changing information with fixed navigation. That context explains why identifying a number’s role matters: a room identifier, a market value and a live feed item should not be treated as equivalent merely because they share a visual vocabulary.

For an independent office directory, place the floor or room identifier where visitors expect it, then separate destinations from explanatory text. If a screen also carries live information, keep that content away from the primary navigation path. Test numbers with different lengths and include a long department name. The largest digit should communicate a useful distinction rather than compete with every other item on the display.

Inter, Source Sans 3 and Roboto Condensed are independent comparison families, not Bloomberg’s commissioned font. Prepare a floor number, time, percentage and multi-digit value with labels. Keep units and signs close to the values they explain, and compare the whole panel at its intended viewing distance. Use a dated source before assigning an unrelated Bloomberg screen or publication to this historical type project.