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Designers research ‘Margaret Calvert’
In the late 1950s the UK’s roads were littered with a plethora of transport sign styles, each commissioned by various bodies at different times. To address these inconsistencies the government of the day decided to commission two graphic designers – Jock Kinneir and Magaret Calvert – to research and develop a completely new and modern visual system. The project was to be one of the most ambitious information design tasks ever undertaken in Britain.
Calvert and Kinneir had already worked on a sign system for Gatwick Airport, although Calvert now describes those designs as ‘fairly crude in retrospect’. Nonetheless, the Gatwick project was the beginning of long career working on transport-related signing design schemes for Calvert, many of them in partnership with Kinneir.
Working with Kinneir, Calvert helped to devise a road signage scheme of carefully coordinated letterforms, colours, shapes and pictographic symbols. The scheme was based on the notion of that each sign should be a map that is orientated towards the driver.
Calvert believed it important that the signs should be friendly and welcoming to motorists, whilst retaining clarity and impact. To achieve this a new typeface was developed – a refinement of the sans serif font Aksidenz Grotesk, but with softer curves. The font was subsequently named Transport and was used with both upper- and lower-case letters, departing from previous road sign text which was all capitalised.
The approachable and friendly presentation continued with the simple pictograms developed for information and warning signs, drawn to complement the Transport font. Calvert imbued these drawings with a personal touch that carries an irresistible warmth to this day. The cow which features in the sign warning of farm animals, for example, is based on Patience, a cow living in Calvert’s relatives’ farm in Warwickshire. Similarly, the school children crossing sign, previously featuring a boy in
In the late 1950s the UK’s roads were littered with a plethora of transport sign styles, each commissioned by various bodies at different times. To address these inconsistencies the government of the day decided to commission two graphic designers – Jock Kinneir and Magaret Calvert – to research and develop a completely new and modern visual system. The project was to be one of the most ambitious information design tasks ever undertaken in Britain.
Calvert and Kinneir had already worked on a sign system for Gatwick Airport, although Calvert now describes those designs as ‘fairly crude in retrospect’. Nonetheless, the Gatwick project was the beginning of long career working on transport-related signing design schemes for Calvert, many of them in partnership with Kinneir.
Working with Kinneir, Calvert helped to devise a road signage scheme of carefully coordinated letterforms, colours, shapes and pictographic symbols. The scheme was based on the notion of that each sign should be a map that is orientated towards the driver.
Calvert believed it important that the signs should be friendly and welcoming to motorists, whilst retaining clarity and impact. To achieve this a new typeface was developed – a refinement of the sans serif font Aksidenz Grotesk, but with softer curves. The font was subsequently named Transport and was used with both upper- and lower-case letters, departing from previous road sign text which was all capitalised.
The approachable and friendly presentation continued with the simple pictograms developed for information and warning signs, drawn to complement the Transport font. Calvert imbued these drawings with a personal touch that carries an irresistible warmth to this day. The cow which features in the sign warning of farm animals, for example, is based on Patience, a cow living in Calvert’s relatives’ farm in Warwickshire. Similarly, the school children crossing sign, previously featuring a boy in