New Traffic Signs Poster - UK, 1965
A rather fine poster, issued by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents in association with the Ministry of Transport, in 1965 to coincide with the introduction of the UK's new road traffic signs that year. Such posters were widely distributed to organisations and institutions such as schools and indeed this is where this copy was rescued from by D Rose who has kindly scanned this and consented to let me post this.
The new system of signage, much more based in pictograms and a new typeface, came from the deliberations of the Worboys Committee that had sat at the behest of the Ministry of Transport to consider the country's road signs. The basic designs had been in place for over 30 years but new road conditions and growing traffic saw the need to update the system, such as for the new and growing motorway network. In fact the motorways had seen a new signage system a few years earlier developed by graphic designers Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir, and these signs were based on a continuation of their work. Aspects such as simplicity and legibility were seen as primary attributes of the new system.
So began a programme of sweeping away the old designs and replacing them, gradually, with new. The old designs are now often fondly recalled and indeed a small number of "pre-Worboys" signs still survive on the road network (few and far between) and in some counties old style heritage fingerposts for local directions have not only survived but been replicated on a small scale. The system seen here has worked well, overall, but there are calls for a systematic overhaul as, with any system, gradual change to allow for new requirments has led to some complexities and divergence from some of the principles set out in this new design.
New Traffic Signs Poster - UK, 1965
A rather fine poster, issued by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents in association with the Ministry of Transport, in 1965 to coincide with the introduction of the UK's new road traffic signs that year. Such posters were widely distributed to organisations and institutions such as schools and indeed this is where this copy was rescued from by D Rose who has kindly scanned this and consented to let me post this.
The new system of signage, much more based in pictograms and a new typeface, came from the deliberations of the Worboys Committee that had sat at the behest of the Ministry of Transport to consider the country's road signs. The basic designs had been in place for over 30 years but new road conditions and growing traffic saw the need to update the system, such as for the new and growing motorway network. In fact the motorways had seen a new signage system a few years earlier developed by graphic designers Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir, and these signs were based on a continuation of their work. Aspects such as simplicity and legibility were seen as primary attributes of the new system.
So began a programme of sweeping away the old designs and replacing them, gradually, with new. The old designs are now often fondly recalled and indeed a small number of "pre-Worboys" signs still survive on the road network (few and far between) and in some counties old style heritage fingerposts for local directions have not only survived but been replicated on a small scale. The system seen here has worked well, overall, but there are calls for a systematic overhaul as, with any system, gradual change to allow for new requirments has led to some complexities and divergence from some of the principles set out in this new design.