Into the unknown
Although it’s easy to glance at a road sign and think ‘I could have done that’, you have to remember that Calvert, and co-designer Jock Kinneir, were designing something completely new. The road network was going through a massive modernisation programme at that time and motorways were a new phenomenon in the UK. As a result rigorous testing had to be carried out to determine the scale of the lettering in relation to the speed of the motorist. The whole signage system had to be standardised from a complete mishmash of localised styles and adopted fonts.
Join the discussion