DESIGNING FOR THE JOURNEY

Waddle this way! The sign-making design genius who kept Britain’s drivers (and ducks) safe

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/feb/02/road-sign-making-design-genius-margaret-calvert-font-legend?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

There are things in our lives that we just take for granted as our attention is given to other activities. Road signs fall into this category, being there for information as we speed through the countryside, towns, and cities. Our thoughts are attending to destinations and future activities, while our immediate attention is given to safe driving and clear intentions as the signs come into view. Road signs exist to assist with the latter activities, to inform and confirm. One never, or very rarely, thinks about their design; they are there to enlighten the moving eye and advise the driver. The relationship with the sign is not emotional, although one might get grumpy if any lack of clarity confuses. Considering these roadside elements as designed items is something that one can entertain only in other circumstances, in a different context removed from the necessities of movement.

The colours are as important as the images and font.

Margaret Calvert.

The Guardian article on Margaret Calvert’s design work is an occasion where this work can be considered aesthetically as well as being seen as ordinary, functional roadside furniture. We have all seen these signs and thought nothing of them other than perhaps believing that they might be the work of a traffic engineer, just there to let people know. We ignore the astonishing wonder. Our impassioned reaction to road signs is more likely to be frustration rather than admiration, perhaps when the driver is informed of problems ahead or slower speed requirements; of roundabouts or distance.

Margaret Calvert with 'Men at Work' handbag.

Discovering that these roadside signs were all a concerted effort of a 1950/1960’s programme to standardise the highway graphics, places these designs into the category of the work of others like Susan Kare who designed the computer icons for Apple: see - https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2012/01/kare.html. Calvert's work is as astonishing as Kare’s, designs that we live with without ever thinking about; elegant work that becomes a part of us and our lives, guiding our activities with brilliantly subtle images. As with Calvert’s work, our engagement with Kare’s designs might only become fervent when one gets alarmed at the appearance of a warning graphic.

Susan Kare.

Lady at work.

The silhouettes in the red triangle always looked a little naïve to the passing eye that read the intent - Gosh, ducks! Gone - rather than studying the relationships between the forms; but on considering this work more closely, one can sense a carefully managed arrangement, a delicate placement of an image in a somewhat awkward space. The duck and the cow fit remarkably comfortably into this odd white, triangular field – Goldilocks style: just right. The worker and falling rock graphics are the only ones that cleverly formally relate to the triangular format. The children crossing is a more complex placement but remains exquisite in its edgy, potential awkwardness.

One is puzzled by how these thoroughly considered images can become mere background elements in our lives that one takes for granted. Even the font design has this character of being clear and crisp, just what the drivers’ eyes need for locational information: - OK, now on with the driving. Perhaps this is a quality of design that we need to know much more about in architecture. We are too concerned today with extremes of distortion and difference that attract and surprise, with the bespoke work becoming the essence rather than the living, that is turned into a self-conscious, theatrical performance. We need to rediscover the art of design that says everything quietly, humbly, in the background, so that we can attend to other matters while being enriched, prompted by a guiding care rather than having the demands of recognition, admiration, and acclaim being placed on us. We need a ‘no-design,’ designed life. Imagine a font designed by Gehry#; a sign created by Hadid.* Architects need to seek out different intentions in order to have the design work best for the users, quietly and effectively, with care, rather than only being grand exhibits to satisfy egos.

HELP.

Margaret Calvert's other work.

It is interesting to note that traffic signs have been used by artists who have recognised their graphic qualities. Australian artist Rosalie Gascoigne has appreciated the design rigour in the pieces and collaged their fragmentation to produce works that inform differently with an enhanced beauty and intrigue.

Rosalie Gascoigne.

Eric Gill's drawing of Gill Sans.

Then there is the font designed by Eric Gill, Gill Sans, designed in 1926, that has been used for the London Underground. Transport authorities seem to be more conscious of design possibilities and necessities than other aspects of our public life. Perhaps it is the demand for clarity that has driven this attention, for certainty in directions and conditions to ensure safe, efficient journeys? It is the journey that architects need to heed, rather than the grand statement.

Gill Sans designed in 1926.

Released by Monotype in 1928.

Eric Gill.

Gill Sans.

Calvert's font designed in 1980; released by Monotype the same year.

#

https://www.dezeen.com/2009/08/27/frank-ettore-and-toyo-by-chris-labrooy/

Gehry never designed a font, but Chris Labrooy has designed a font inspired by the work of Gehry. It is hardly suitable for roadside signage and highlights the difference in intent.

Labrooy's 'Gehry' font adapts the Gehry distortions.

FRANK.

The latent power of the crash lingers in Calvert's work.

*

Hadid has designed as sign:

Hadid sign.

Typical Hadid project - ambitious, 'futuristic' form.

There is a stark clarity in Calvert's elegant, unpretentious work.

Ithaka

by C. P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka

hope your road is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:

you’ll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.

May there be many summer mornings when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind—

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.

But don’t hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you’re old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you wouldn't have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.