Road Sinage System

Road Signage System

In the 1950s, road were confusing and dangerous. There were different symbols, colours and lettering scattered around the country. As more and more people were buying cars.

The road signs desperately needed to be redesigned. Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert were given the job to create signs that could be read within a split second.

Calvert, says “They had to start from scratch.

It required completely radical thinking. The information wasn't there in terms of reading distance, clarity and letter spaces. We had to make up the signs and then test them. It was instinctive."

These signs were tested in an underground car park in London’s Hyde Park.  In the car park they created a background of trees to be able to resolve what would be the most successful and appropriate for background colours and reading from a distance.    

Using Upper case and Lower case letters in a sign is much easier to read from a distance. For example; if you had Birmingham in capitals, from a distance it difficult to read.  By having it in capitals and lower case letters you get the word shape.

Calvert says, "That was fundamental."

After creating a success with a big and bold motorway signs, Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert were signed up to refurbish the rest of Britain’s road in 1963. They created new signs