Tberfil is a style of lettering which mainly could be found on the old Maltese transport, however this art could still be found on some working trucks, Luzzi or on sulkies as well. The meaning of tberfil is a reference to decorations in Malta arts and crafts such as Pavaljuni and Bandlori, Bizzila, etc.
Tberfil took off a quiet of years ago, where bus drivers made sure that their bus would be decorated as much as possible in this style to stick out in a Maltese traditional way. However it was initiated back in the 1930’s on the very first transport vehicles in Malta such as Lusitanija, which was a an old bus named after a sunk ship by the Germans.
Old Maltese Buses circa 1930′s
Valletta Bus Terminus circa 1930′s
I like the fact that it’s a free hand made font in which the artist could design the font as much as he wants as long as its kept traditional. I also noticed that it’s usually illustrated with two coloured tones. It kind of looks like its 3D.
Although there’s not exactly any traditional colours for the designing of Tberfil, circa 1930’s Maltese buses were colour coded and this is the list of what colours they were and in which destination they were headed to:
Red + Green stripe = Zejtun --- C
Red + Blue stripe = Zabbar --- A
Red + white / red stripes = Lija/Attard --- C
Blue = Rabat / Dingli --- A
Blue + Cream stripe = Gudja / Ghaxaq --- C
Light Blue + white / red stripes = Kalafrana --- C
White + blue stripe = Mellieha --- C
Light Green = Cospicua (Cottonera) --- A
Yellow + orange stripe = Siggiewi --- A
Brown + dark brown stripe = Naxxar --- C
Dark Green = Sliema / St Julian’s --- A
Dark Green + red stripe = San Gwann
All Red + white stripe+ Gozo Mail Bus
Sadly enough we don’t see this typeface much often now a days due to the old busses not being in service anymore.
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