Their system has become a role model for modern road signage all over the world.
Determined to illustrate the haphazard state of the british road signage before it.
Graphic Designer Herbert Spencer drove from central London to the recently opened Heathrow London Airport and realized that the road signage was very hard to follow as they show arrows physically pointing in different directions making them hard to read as cars would have to make a stop to get a look.
-
Calvert & Kinneir had already worked on a signage system for gatwick Airport.
Working with Kinneir, Calvert helped to devise a road signage scheme of carefully coordinated letterforms, colours, shapes and pictographic symbols based on a notion that each sign should be a map that is orientated towards the driver.
So that Road signs were clearer and more welcoming to read than the harsh upper case signs previously, a new typeface was developed; it was called transport and consisted of upper and lower case letters as it is easier to read than capitals, as our brain can work out the shapes of words with in a split second if they are spelt with upper and lower case letters.
The transport typeface was developed from an already existing typeface called, 'Aksidenz Grotesk' but given softer curves.
This image shows the state of the old road signage before the re-design.
This is was a television interview and unveiling of the new signage.
And these are what we know today.
The children crossing the road is actually based on a photograph of Calvert crossing the road to school when she was a child.
No comments:
Post a Comment