Margaret Calvert & Jock Kinneir
In 1950 the UK had four
million licenced vehicles. By 1970 that reached almost ten million and half of
UK households had access to them. The increase in car ownership meant that
pre-existing roads were inadequate, leading to the building of the UK’s first motorway
in 1958. While it was been planned and
built, it was realized that current road signs may be hard to read at the high
speeds possible on the new motorway. A system of new signs was needed. The job
of designing the signs for UK’s motorways was given to duo Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir, and the project
later led to the re-design of every road sign on Britain’s roads. This duo is
responsible for much of Britain’s visual identity in the 20th
century and helped millions find their way across the country, as well as in
every railway station, airport, and hospital.
Richard “Jock” Kinneir
Born in Hampshire
in 1917, Jock was student of Chelsea School of Art, specializing in engraving.
After World War II he worked for the Central Office of Information as an
exhibition designer. Then, he worked for the Design Research Unit from 1950-56,
before starting up his own practise in 1952. In 1954 he began teaching design
part-time at Chelsea School of Art, which is where he first met Margaret. In
1957, thanks to a chance meeting with architect David Alford at a bus stop, he received his first commission - to design
the signage for Gatwick Airport. He
later became head of the graphic design department of The Royal College of Art
in 1964 and wrote Words and Buildings in 1980. He died in 1994.
Margaret Vivienne Calvert
Born in South Africa in 1936, Margret came to England in
1950. She studied illustration at Chelsea School of Art before been invited by Jock to join him on designing the signage for Gatwick
Airport in 1957.
“I studied for four years at Chelsea and graphic design
didn’t exist at that time. I think they called it “commercial art.” And I just
love doing life drawing and talking to fine artists. It was marvellous after
school to have that freedom. So, Jock Kinneir came in one day to introduce the
illustrators and bookmakers to what he would call design and he set us a
project that involved hand lettering. And I was just hooked from then on.” - Margaret
Calvert
Their First Collab at Gatwick
Jack and Margaret’s first collaboration was for the signage
for Gatwick Airport in 1957. Been their first job, it was a big learning curve
which shaped their later work. At the time, Margaret enrolled in evening
classes on typography at the Central School of Arts & Crafts, and got her
first independent gig designing the front of Schweppes soda vending machines in
West London.
“Jock got that job almost by chance. He had a neighbour
called David Alford from Yorke, Rosenberg & Mardall, and they were
designing Gatwick. It was a big prestige project as you can imagine. They were
in the same queue waiting to get the Green Line bus to Hyde Park Corner, and
David said, 'We've got this job, and we need someone to do signs, are you
interested?', so Jock said 'Of course', although he knew very little, if
anything about signing large buildings. I had just taken my final exams when he
invited me to work for him.” - Margaret Calvert (Frieze, 2003)
The P&O Route
Inspired by a magazine article about Gatwick’s signage, the
design-conscious chairman of P&O shipping Colin Anderson commissioned Jock
to design luggage labels for his passenger services. In that same year he
became chairman of the government committee formed to design the UK’s first
motorways, which is probably how Jock got the road sign gig.
“Intended for use by sometimes illiterate labour, the
labels are coded visually: shape of label indicates place of storage on board,
colour indicates the area of the world to which the baggage is destined,
pattern shows the port of off-loading in that area.” - Kinneir Calvert Tuhill
brochure (1971)
“That’s my first attempt at drawing lettering because that
kind of typeface just didn’t exist’. - Margaret Calvert
Road Signs Before Jock and Margret
Before 1964 road signs in the UK were a disorganised mess. Modern
signage began as a by-product of the popularity of bicycles. Cyclists (like
motorists) needed warnings of hazards on unfamiliar roads. In the 1880s cycling
organisations were erecting cast-iron “danger boards” and, in 1888, the
government (through county councils) were pressured into been responsible for
the roads, leading to the semi-standardized implementation of direction signs
and milestones.
The story repeated when cars gained popularity. Motoring
organisations erected their own warning and direction signs. A standardized
system of two signs on one post was produced from the Motor Car Act of 1903,
becoming the standard used from 1934. But national specifications were
advisory. Although symbols were used on signs in Europe from 1909, the British
dismissed the idea and sticked to worded signs until a review in 1921 changed
their mind. Symbols plus words were the norm then on.
During World War II, direction signs were blacked out or
removed to hinder possible German invasions. After the war, the motoring
organisations, like the AA and the RAC, erected non-standard “temporary” signs.
Also, signs began to look similar to those found in Europe.
However, the Worboys Committee report of 1963 listed the
following flaws with that signage –
“(a) roadside signs are too small to be readily
recognisable as such and to be easily read by drivers travelling at the normal
speed of traffic;
(b) they do not have a simple, integrated appearance;
(c) the more important signs are not readily
distinguishable from the less important at long range;
(d) they are often not effective at night;
(e) they are different from those used on the continent of
Europe and only those who can read English can fully understand them;
(f) they are often mounted too high, particularly in rural
areas;
(g) they are often badly sited in relation to junctions;
and
(h) there is insufficient continuity of place names on
directional signs.”
The UK’s First Motorway (Signs)
As the UK’s first motorway was been developed, in 1957 the
government set up an advisory committee with Colin Anderson as chair and MoT
civil servant T. G. Usborne in charge of proceedings. They had America and
Germany’s signage, prior research by the Road Research Laboratory, and advice
from nearly 30 organisations to go by. Wanting their signs to be the best ever
designed, committee member Hugh Casson initially suggested a collaboration with
the Royal Collage of Art (where Hugh was a professor. Eventually, the committee
commissioned Jock and Margaret to design the UK’s motorway signage system.
When the duo looked at Germany’s Autobahn signage, they had
a thought – we can do better than that. To Margaret “The signs were all in
upper and lowercase letters. Very aggressive and fairly ugly and uncompromising
because they were designed by engineers.” And so, they began designing their
own signs and typeface for them.
Testing the typefaces and letter spacing involved “a lot of
squinting.” They tested their signs in an underground car-park in Knightsbridge
to simulate night-time conditions. They also tested signs in Hyde Park,
propping prototypes up against trees, and walking towards them slowly. They
were then placed on a car and driven by committee member, former racing driver,
Lord Waleran as fast as possible on the runways of RAF Hendon. Finally, the
first signs were installed on unopened stretches of Preston Bypass and M1, with
testers in police cars going 90mph. The Preston Bypass opened on 5th
December 1958 and the first section of the M1 opened on 1st November
1959 – using Jock and Margaret’s signs. The Times said that they were “a
complete breakaway from present British usage”.
Jock later recalled the moment he realized his signs really
worked. One evening, after a committee meeting in the north of England, Lord
Waleran offered in a lift back to London in his Jaguar. As Waleran drove down
the M1 at 95mph, Jock was “delighted to see the signs were legible when one was
doing that speed at night.”
To begin with, because of their large size, the signs backs were painted dark grey-green to make them less conspicuous.
What about the rest of the Road Network
In 1961 designer Herbert Spencer drove from Marble Arch to
Heathrow Airport and photographed every road sign he came across. The result was
a photo essay published in his graphic design magazine Typographica.
Headlined “Mile-a-minute typography.” Herbert said that there was “an urgent
need to review the whole system of British road signs and specially to adopt
simple pictorial symbols in place of the wordy and often ambiguous notices at
present in use”.
In response to Spencer’s lobbying, the government set up an
advisory committee, chaired by Walter John Worboys (from ICI) in July 1963 to
review signage on all British roads. T. G. Usborne was in charge of proceedings
again, and (with the success of the motorway signs) Jock and Margaret were commissioned
again to design new signs.
So, they started again. Like they did for the motorway
signs, they looked at pre-existing signs in Europe and thought “we can do
better.”
The resulting work was filtered back into the motorway
signs they previously designed, resulting in a few changes to make them
consistent with the new non-motorway signs. The new sign system became law in
1965.
Symbols from Life
“We’d always seen Britain as very literate, so having
pictures on signs, which was more European, was seen as a big change.” - Margaret
Calvert (Daily Mail, 2004)
“Pictograms? It’s easier to learn English.” – Jock Kinneir,
on how symbols can be open to interpretation in multiple ways by different
people.
Although UK signs had used pictograms before, they just
grabbed the driver’s attention to the sign’s text. Pictograms only signs were
the biggest change to the system. When it came to designing the pictograms,
Margaret took inspiration from her own like. The cow on the sign warning
drivers of farm animals on the road, for example. “My main model was a cow
called Patience that my farmer relatives had in Wiltshire.”
“There were pictograms of children on European signs, but
they were often crudely drawn by engineers. There were some illustrated school
signs in England, but they used to be of a boy of about ten with a satchel and
a cap, and a small girl behind him. It was quite archaic, almost like an
illustration from Enid Blyton, and very grammar-schooly. I wanted to make it
more inclusive because comprehensives were starting up, and I didn’t want it to
have a social class feel. … I switched it to make the girl more caring, with
her leading a little boy. My model for the girl was myself as a child –
although I was very skinny as a girl, so I beefed myself up a bit because you
have to draw a shape that can be seen from a distance.” - Margaret Calvert (Daily
Mail, 2004)
“I just wish I’d left the tip on it to show it was a
shovel.” - Margaret Calvert
Business Partners
Jock’s company, Kinneir Associates, moved into a small
rented office above a garage in Knightsbridge in 1956. This is why most
tellings of Jock’s life say “he stated his own business in 1956.” The company
was renamed Kinneir Calvert & Associates in 1966, when Margaret officially
became a partner.
In 1970 it had become Kinneir Calvert Tuhill Ltd, when David
Tuhill joined as a partner. He became a partner because he “represented more
clearly a strand of graphic design that had come to predominate in London, and
with which Jock Kinneir never felt much affinity: a frankly commercial,
‘ideas’-based graphics that employed sharp copywriting and slick illustration
or photography.”
After the road sign gig, Jock and Margaret worked on
signage for the rebranding of British Rail in 1965, signs for NHS hospitals, a
few airports (including Glasgow’s, which included a Saltire-inspired logo), and
the armed forces. Their last collaboration was the Tyne & Wear Metro in
1977.
Post-Jock Margaret
Margaret has always been an independently minded creative,
with multiple creations made during her time as assistant and, later, business
partner to Jock. In 1978 she won a D&AD Silver award for book the
typography in David Hockney’s book Travels with Pen, Pencil and Ink. After Jock
retired in 1980, she started her own practice.
She taught at the Royal College of Art and was head of
their Department of Graphic Arts and Design from 1987-91. She became a senior
fellow in 2001. She was awarded an honorary fellowship by University of the
Arts, London, in 2004.
Despite her vast repertoire, her work on road signs is the thing most people remember her for - and she has used that in her own work, exemplified by her typeface A26, created for Neville Brody’s Fuse project in 1994.
MoT Logo
In 1960 the Ministry of Transport introduced the annual MoT
test to test the road-worthiness of old cars. “Jock designed the MoT symbol and
the three triangles reflect the three parts of the test as it was then carried
out [brakes, lights and steering].” - Margaret Calvert (Frieze, 2003)
Burkett/Rudman fishmongers (1962)
Glasgow Airport (1964)
“What do I want to know, trying
to read a design at speed?”- Jock Kinneir
“Style never came into it. You were driving towards the
absolute essence.” - Margaret Calvert
The Geneva Protocol
In 1949 the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic took place,
setting up an international standard for road signs. If Jock and Margaret had a
strict design brief for the UK’s road signs this was it.
Danger Signs
“The danger signs shall be in the shape of an equilateral
triangle with one point upwards except in the case of sign "PRIORITY ROAD
AHEAD" [GIVE WAY] which shall have a point downwards.”
“These signs shall have a red border with white or
light-yellow ground. Symbols shall be black or dark.”
Instruction Signs
“The signs of this class shall be circular in shape.”
Probibitory Signs – speed limit
“Except where otherwise specified or shown in the diagrams
of this Protocol, the colours of prohibitory signs shall be as follows: white
or light yellow, with a red border, the symbol being black or of a dark
colour.”
Mandatory Signs – cycle lane
“The colour of mandatory signs shall be as follows: blue
ground with a white symbol.”
Informative Signs
“The signs of this class shall be rectangular in shape.”
“Where the colours to be used are optional, the colour red
shall in no case predominate.”
Advance Direction Signs
“The advance direction signs shall be rectangular in
shape.”
“Their size shall be such that the indication can be
understood easily by drivers of vehicles travelling at speed.”
“These signs shall have either a light ground with dark
lettering or a dark ground with light lettering.”
Direction Signs
“Direction signs shall be rectangular with the longer side
horizontal and shall terminate in the form of an arrowhead.”
“Names of other places lying in the same direction may be
added to the sign.”
“When distances are indicated, the figures giving
kilometres (or miles) shall be inscribed between the name of the place and the
arrow-head.”
“The colours of these signs shall be the same as those for
advance direction signs.”
Place and Route Identification Signs
“Signs indicating a locality shall be rectangular in shape
with the longer side horizontal.”
“These signs shall be of such a size and placed in such a
manner that they shall be visible even at night.”
“These signs shall have either a light ground with dark
lettering, or a dark ground with light lettering.”
“Since
cost-effectiveness was our criterion, it was evident that we would have to work
in terms of minimum preferred dimensions between units. Once again, it was the
scientists who put the necessary tool in our hands. They suggested that we use,
as a unit of measurement, the width of a letter stroke, e.g., the capital “i”.
In this way the dimensions would remain proportionally the same even if the
size of the letter changed. The implication of this thinking was that any
graphic element which did not prove itself necessary should be eliminated. We,
therefore, disposed of arrow heads on road symbols and ruled boxes around groups
of names. Seeing these appendages go was like taking a stone out of one’s shoe
as well as giving us greater flexibility in layout and a greater truth to
geography.
The
latter was the fundamental factor. It dictated that, wherever possible,
map-type signs depicting the actual layout of road junctions would be preferred
to signs using stacks of names and arrows.
The
stack-type signs would be used only when there was not enough space in which to
erect the larger map signs.” - Jock Kinneir (Transportation Graphics: Where Am I Going? How
Do I Get There? - The Museum of Modern Art, 1967)
“We found it considerably cheaper to reflectorize white
words and symbols on a dark ground rather than on the reverse. When, however,
local destinations or minor roads are involved, the signs are inevitably
smaller; therefore, it is necessary to have a white sign in order to insure
conspicuity. This physical requirement was utilized to express the grading of
the roads and was, in part, responsible in determining the need for two
alphabets of different weights. The other reason being the halation effect of
the reflective material. White letters have to be lighter in weight than black
ones for similar performance.” - Jock Kinneir (Transportation Graphics: Where Am I
Going? How Do I Get There? - The Museum of Modern Art, 1967)
Which Colour?
“The scientists then advised us that white letters on a
colour in the blue—green range were most legible and a wrangle over the exact
choice of colour ensued which was lengthy and at times impassioned. Black,
everyone agreed, was too funereal; very dark blue was found often to look
black. Since the scientists had advised that blue should be reserved for
motorways, the hue had to be green. The argument, then, polarised between our
demand for a bright green which every man could recognize and name as such and
the architects’ demand for a green which was nearly black (‘the blacker, the
better’). Our opinion was that their choice conformed to an ‘in-taste’ and was
unrealistic. While this argument raged, the Laboratory made some signs for
testing in a mid—green of their own choosing. These signs were erected at
Slough near London and the colour finally used came to be known as Slough
green. Initially, we opposed the selection on subjective grounds; however, we
feel now that it has some merit.” - Jock Kinneir (Transportation Graphics: Where
Am I Going? How Do I Get There? - The Museum of Modern Art, 1967)
In the UK, signs
on motorways are blue. On primary routes their green. White is used on for minor
roads and in settlements. Yellow is used to sign non-permanent situations, such
as diversions. Additional colours can be used of specific situations. For
example, purple signs were used around Glasgow to mark out a “Games Route
Network” for athletes and officials to use during the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Committee member
Hugh Casson played a role in the green decision, thinking it should be dark
green “like the colour of old dinner jackets.” The first “Slough green” signs
were set up at the A34 at Hall Green, Birmingham, in 1963.
Originally the
committee decided on green for the motorway signs, because they thought it
would be the “most distinctive colour” and “would at the same time give good
contrast.” But they changed their minds to blue when they saw blue used in
Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Also, blue would stand out “against the
natural greens of the countryside”.
The Transport Medium “I” stroke width is the yardstick for the whole sign system. Borders are 1.5 strokes wide. Route arms on junction map signs are 2.5, 4, or 6 strokes wide (depending on their status) and gaps between two unrelated blocks of text is 12 strokes wide.
Transport Typeface
“I am anxious you shouldn’t embark upon inventing an alphabet of a character quite “new”. We have, as a committee, got into the habit of accepting the general weight and appearance of the German alphabet as being the sort of thing we need! I think therefore something on those lines is what the Committee believes it wants…’ Colin Anderson (Letter dated 26th June 1958).
Seeing the “German alphabet” as effective, but ugly for British taste, the duo ignored this request and designed a new typeface. Based on Aksidenz Grotesk, Transport is softer and curvier than the blunt modernist typefaces used on signs on continental Europe, making it seem friendlier and appealing to British drivers. The committee liked it and got “Almost unanimous” support from consultive organisations.
This is DIN 1451, the typeface used on German road signs since the1930s. Its designed to be drawn precisely, using any drawing instrument, with the help of a compass, ruler and grid. No wonder it looks “mathematical and monotone.”
Transport’s letters are designed to be made into tiles that can be resized for signs in any size and ensure correct spacing between the letters at the same time.
“The basis of the letter design was the need for forms not to clog when viewed in headlights at a distance. For this reason, counters [the spaces within letters, such as “a” and “c”] …. had to be kept open and gaps prevented from closing. Also, as pointillist painting has shown, forms tend to merge when viewed from a distance, and this suggested a wider letter spacing than is usual in continuous text.” - Jock Kinneir
Transport Heavy was created for white signs, because at night the halo created by the reflective coating would make black Transport Medium text harder to read. White Transport Medium text appeared bolder with the halo on blue motorway signs.
The original version of Transport was digitized and released by URW Type Foundry in 2001. These words are written in this form of Transport.
In 2008 K-Type introduced an unofficial “redrawing” of Transport - Transport New. Its main application has been the typeface for the interface of video game Untitled Goose Game, a game set in an idyllic English village.
Transport goes Online
When Ben Terrett and his Government Digital Service design team got the task of revamping the British government’s official website one requirement is that it had to be as accessible as possible. So, they needed a typeface that is easily readable. But one that was also British was preferable. So, they chose Transport. To be more precise New Transport, designed by Henrik Kubel and Margaret. This version came in seven weights and included italics, as well as small capital letters and Eastern European characters. It was released by A2 Type in 2012.
"It is really exciting to see New Transport used for the first time, online, for the Government’s website... Almost as exciting as driving down the M1 for the first time." – Margaret Calvert
GOV.UK went online in 2012, and it proved so good a design that it became overall winner of the 2013 Design Museum’s Design of the Year Award. Since 2013, every time someone in the UK needed to use a government service digitally, did so through GOV.UK on a page typeset with New Transport.
Motorway Typeface
Jock and Margaret designed two typefaces for use on motorways back in 1958. This second “typeface,” Motorway, isn’t a complete character set, which may be why most typeface history books don’t bother mentioning it. It didn’t need a complete set, because its only purpose is to label route numbers on signs on, or pointing to, motorways.
It comes in two variants – “Permanent,” used on blue motorway signs.
“Temporary,” a bolder version used on yellow temporary signs.
K-Type digitized it, creating a complete character set for it, in 2015. Their version comes in three weights – Bold (Temporary), SemiBold (Permanent) and (new) Regular – and comes in italics.
Serif Capitals vs Mixed Cased Sans Serif
“Objectively, the advantage which the lower-case letter form has is legibility and, subjectively, the capital letter form has authoritarian associations. These characteristics were used in deciding that lower-case forms would be used for civilian information and direction signs and capital letters would be used for military designation and civilian command signs (such as “POLICE-STOP”). By using lower-case letters, frequently, capital letters gained in value by their rarity: lower-case forms, in effect, constituted the conversational tone, while capitals supplied the, occasional, shout. This basic decision resulted in a choice of lower-case letters for signs in hospitals, airports and railway stations—all situations of stress where a conversational rather than a dictatorial tone is appropriate.” - – Jock Kinneir (Transportation Graphics: Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There? - The Museum of Modern Art, 1967)
Jock and Margrett’s signs can be seen as an example of modernism triumphing over traditionalists. Until then, it was common practise to letter signs with serif capital letters. When photos of the new motorway signs were published some people didn’t like them. Especially one stone-cutter/type designer and former apprentice of Eric Gill - David Kindersley.
“I worked with David Kindersley for 3-years …. With regards to lettering for signs, Kindersley had previously re-drawn the 'Standard MOT' alphabet, to give it greater legibility and also devised a spacing-system to stop over-close spacing of the letters.
In 1950, the MOT bought his street nameplate alphabet, calling it 'Kindersley', …. Having been in touch with one of the RRL testers of the 'MOTSerif' alphabet, it seems that there was political pressure to go for a "European" alphabet on the new motorway signs. The UK was used to all-capital direction signs and it has been said that this was retained as a ploy to confuse any invading Germans who were, of course, used to Lower-case lettering on their signs!” - Guy Bettley-Cooke
David had history with the MoT – in 1952 he submitted to them the typeface MoT serif for use on road signs. He hated the new signs because of how big they were (“as big as the front of a council house”) and its use of mixed case lettering. He thought ALL CAPS worked because they were easier to read than small case at the same size, requiring less space on signs. Serifs worked in books, so they should work on signs at a distance. Also, it “is purely the result of their size and not due to any particular skill in their design’,
He was very vocal about it, writing to The Times and debating with members of the Anderson committee on the BBC. It created a lot of controversy. David even designed his own version of the signs, using MoT Serif in all caps. His signs were smaller, but the text was a mismatch with the clean modern-looking diagrams.
To finally settle this, in 1961 the RRL carried out tests on Benson Airfield, Oxfordshire. 10-15 RAF volunteers sat on a tiered platform while signs, attached to a car, were moved towards them. The results showed that “none of the three scripts tested has any appreciable advantage over the others with regard to legibility,” but the serifed capitals had about 3% better readability. However, this can be contributed by the serifed capitals been made 25% taller than Jock’s type on the signs used in the tests. Factoring this, Jock’s letters are better suited for road signs, if made bigger. But critics say that means that signs have to be made bigger to accommodate larger lettering, therefore more expensive to make. But Jock counters this – “The criterion requiring an economic use of sign surface was to be largely overridden by the need to achieve clarity of layout on the more complex signs” In other words, smaller signs are harder to see.
The conclusion was “Since there is little difference in legibility between the different types of lettering, it seems reasonable to make the choice on aesthetic grounds.” Also “there are grounds for believing that aesthetic questions may be at the root of the controversy.”
Later tests, carried out to please David, showed similar results and a comparison test using non-researcher staff to rate which design was best showed most people preferred Jock’s designs. Many describe David’s designs as “ugly.” However, they are a few people who still think David’s was better and cite the “3% better readability” as proof of that.
Serif letters are characterized by their high contrast of thick and thin strokes, which, quoting Anderson committee member Noel Carrington, from a letter to the editor of The Times in 1959, “would almost certainly prove unsuitable when the letters have to consist of reflectionized material to catch the headlights.”
Rail
Alphabet
“January
1965 marks the start of an entirely new look for British Railways. All parts of
the system will be given a recognizable house style. The Main elements are a
new symbol, new livery and new letter styles.” – The new face of British
Railways poster (1964)
In 1964
the Design Research Unit was commissioned to given the nationalized British
Railways a new co-ordinated modern identity. This included a name change
(shorted to British Rail), Gerry Barney’s “double-arrow” logo, company colours
and a new typeface.
When
given the job for signs for British Rail, Jock originally thought of just
reusing Transport. It was tried out in Coventry in the early-1960s. But it was
soon realized that Transport, designed to be read by fast-moving drivers, was
surplus to requirements. Rail passengers walked slowly, so they had more time
to read signs. So, the duo revisited Gatwick Airport and modified the typeface
they used there, resulting in Rail Alphabet.
Rail Alphabet’s letters are slightly heavier and
more closely spaced than those of Transport, with less exaggerated tails on the
letters.
Been
based on Aksidenz Grotesk, Rail Alphabet does have a passing resemblance to
Helvetica, which was also based on Aksidenz Grotesk.
“It’s
ordinary, …. People think nobody designed it, because it’s ordinary.” – Margaret
Calvert
Like
Transport, its characters are designed to be made into tiles that can be scaled
to ensure correct spacing between letters.
Two
slightly different weights were made for better visibility. Rail Alphabet 1 (bigger)
for dark characters on bright backgrounds and Rail Alphabet 2 (smaller) for
light coloured characters on dark backgrounds.
Going
off Rail and out of UK
There
is some confusion on where Rail Alphabet was first used. Some say Rail Alphabet
was first used on NHS hospital signage, before first appearing in Liverpool
Street Station, London, in 1965. Others say it was the other way round. It was
later adopted by Belfast and Glasgow airports, before the British Airports
Authority adopted it for their airport signage in 1966. British armed forces even
adopted it for their signage. But it also found itself outside the UK. Jens
Nielsen used it in his redesign of the corporate identity of Danish State
Railways (DSB) in 1972.
Digitizing
Rail Alphabet
In
2005 a former student of Margret’s, Henrik Kubel,
and Scott Williams approached Margret the idea of
digitizing Rail Alphabet for a touring British art project. She agreed. Henrik
traced the original letterforms and produced a complete typeface in one weight.
It never got used in that project, but did get used in their catalogue Jane
and Louise Wilson for the QUAD exhibition in 2008.
Then,
in 2008, Margret got a call from a Spanish company wanting to make a version of
Rail Alphabet for a Corporate Client. She told them that it was already in the
process of digitalization, and renewed contact with Henrik.
It was
a huge task, made difficult due to its original sketches been scraped ages ago,
forcing Henrik to work with printed copies of British Airport specifications.
Then he discovered that the typeface Calvert was basically Rail Alphabet with
serifs, and used it as a base. “Now it is literally Calvert without serifs!” The
result was New Rail Alphabet, which comes in six weights, includes Eastern
European characters, and is available in italics. Originally called “Britanica”
it was released by A2 Type in 2009. These words are
written in New Rail Alphabet.
“I would say this is a very female version of a sans, it’s warmer than
Helvetica, it oozes Margaret in every detail. But my typefaces are very
feminine, so I think we complement each other very well. If you know that
Margaret did Transport as well, you see that it’s a natural way for her to draw
another sans, a more “Swiss” sans.” - Henrik Kubel
Rail
Alphabet Returns Home
Rail
Alphabet began to disappear on UK railway stations in the end of the 1980s,
when various branches of British Rail decided to rebrand. Then British Rail got
privatized in 1994, accelerating the trend. By the time Network Rail bought
control of the UK’s rail infrastructure in 2002, only trace amounts of Rail
Alphabet remained. In 2020, Margret and Henrik were commissioned by Network
Rail to design Rail Alphabet 2 for use on British railway stations.
Calvert
(Margaret’s namesake)
In
1977 Jock and Margaret worked on their last ever collaboration – creating the
identity for the Tyne and Wear Metro system in Newcastle. Been in an architecturally-interesting
city (and independent from British Rail) it was thought it needed a unique
typeface. That typeface was a reject from a previous project.
“The
typeface was originally designed in 1971 for the French new town of St
Quentin-en-Yveline as part of a much larger job, a report covering all aspects
of communication in the town. There was not much design in the report and the
typeface itself was not used as it was felt to be 'too English'. We felt it was
appropriate for Newcastle, where serifs would be an enriching element:
especially in stations such as Monument in the centre of the city.” - Margaret
Calvert (Frieze, 2003)
This
serif typeface made its first public appearance when the Metro opened in 1980.
In that same year, Monotype released it commercially and called it Calvert.
“I would never have chosen that name.” - Margaret Calvert
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