Even if you’re not that much of a fan or know that much about graphic design, Margaret Calvert will surely have had an influence on your life.
Calvert (b. 1936), with her former teacher at Chelsea College of Art, Jock Kinneir designed the signage for the burgeoning motorway system. Ironically, at the time, neither Calvert nor Kinneir could drive.
As well as the signage for the nation’s road and rail, Calvert & Kinneir designed the accompanying typefaces. Motorway was first used in 1958 on the M6 Preston bypass (now part of the M6). It’s also been adopted on the road networks of Ireland and Portugal. Rail Alphabet, designed in 1965, was first used at London’s Liverpool Street Station. It would later be adopted by the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales for its signs. It continues to be the dominant typeface used on signs in older hospitals. It’s also been adopted by British Airports Authority and by Danish railway company, DSB.
Calvert re-imagined her ‘Man at Work’ sign as a ‘Woman at Work’ artwork (compare the top pair of road signs). She also updated her ‘Children Crossing’ sign in 2016 (the girl was based on a childhood photo of herself); can you spot the differences?
She was responsible for designing the Tyne and Wear Metro typeface in 1977. It was later updated and evolved to be used, in 1992, as 3D external signage for Royal College of Art.
In her own words:
We never decided, ‘Oh, let’s brand the United Kingdom’… but as with London black cabs and red buses… You thought of everything from the standpoint of: ‘What if I am at the wheel, doing speeds of over 70mph?’
I like the idea of designing for the larger public… Design is a service. The term graphic design didn’t exist then. They called it commercial art. It’s not designing from a fashion point of view, it’s purely logic, function and aesthetics. And you can’t get simpler.
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