Great Design Is Ignored |
05/03/19
A British design classic. Margret Calvert's type faces and graphics fulfilled their function so efficiently that the public take them for granted. Her road sign designs are timeless, and have become a part of the UKs brand, along with black cabs and red buses.
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After her mention in my post on international women’s day, I decided it was time for a Margaret Calvert blog post. She is widely considered to be the mother of modern day information design. After specialising in illustration at the Chelsea School of Art, she was hired by well-known graphic designer Jock Kinneir as his assistant. Their most significant achievement together was undoubtedly the redesign of the UK’s entire road sign system, which replaced the chaotic mish-mash of different typefaces and symbols commissioned by various bodies that existed previously.
Although they may not have the glamour of other iconic British designs, their greatness is in the pleasing simplicity of their arrows, and the surprising loveliness of their running deer. The road signs are a design classic. The population of the UK sees them on a daily basis, and has for the past 50 years. |
One of their biggest decisions, which caused upset among conservative commentators at the time, was to opt for a combination of upper and lower case letters.
"The actual word shape was the most distinctive thing because if you had Birmingham in capitals, from a distance, it's difficult to read but in caps and lower case you have word shape. That was fundamental." Transport and Motorway, which is used only for route numbers on motorways, are still the only two typefaces permitted on UK road signs. Transport is also used in several other countries, including Iceland, Ireland and Portugal, and in much of the Middle East. To me, the most significant image is the school sign. Calvert chose to show a girl leading a boy – a subtle yet bold feminist statement that wasn’t copied in European reproductions of her designs. |
This one raises some interesting thoughts in my search for great design. I think this is great. But totally underappreciated. No one thinks of road signs when you say 'design'. Road signs don't have the astronomical price tag of some design classics. I would say the iPhone is perhaps good, but not great design. Yet everyone knows who Johnathan Ive is. How many people drive past Margaret Calverts designs and know who is behind them? My guess is very few. I'm being to wonder whether the point that things become unnoticeable as design is when they become truly great. Sure, we all recognise products that are well designed, but not many manage to create things we don't think of things as being designed. What if great design is when we don't even begin the appreciate the thinking and process behind it? Maybe bad design is something we notice, and great design is something we don't. |
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2015/sep/18/way-to-go-the-woman-who-invented-britains-road-signs
https://creativechair.org/margaret-calvert/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2015/sep/18/way-to-go-the-woman-who-invented-britains-road-signs
https://creativechair.org/margaret-calvert/