Nawaraj Gurung
96072214
Motion Designer PRODUCTION PACK GROUP ONE
Producer Katy Holehouse [email protected] 07546 029453
Director Amber Cherry [email protected] 079479 93967
Camera Maisie Middlewick [email protected] 07703 613789
Lighting / Sound Louise Stanley [email protected] 077036 13789
PA Sarah Bragg [email protected] 07507 926559
Editor Anthony Hollis [email protected] 07947 140940 Amber Cherry
[email protected] 07527 608636 Motion Graphics Alexandra Binding [email protected] Nawaraj Gurung 07868 163427 Anthony Hollis Research All of the above All of the above All of the above
Schedule:
Tuesday 4th October - Group formed
Thursday 6th October - Roles decided / topic of film chosen
Thursday 13th October - Research completed / rough proposal and script outlined
Tuesday 18th October - Production Pack handed in to Moodle / Formative
Thursday 20th October - Script / talent finalised / CLR
Friday 21st October - RECCE
Monday 24th October onwards - filming
Monday 7th November onwards - Editing
Monday 14th November - Film submitted in to Moodle
Proposal:
As the title of this unit suggests we will be creating an in-depth five minute film deciphering road signs and what makes this classic everyday object a design classic. As well as bringing the history of road signs to life with archive footage we will be attempting to break down the actual design of the road signs themselves using clever motion graphics. We will also hopefully gain more insightful knowledge of signs with an interview from an industry expert and how they effect our everyday lives. Lastly we will finish our film by injecting more energy and colour by looking at how artists use road signs today and their overall impact in the design world.
From the first group meetings we decided to put all the things we knew about road signs, things we wanted to know and how we envisioned our film looking onto a large sheet of paper. From this we each discovered key areas we needed to research and split theses into different categories. We then placed our names next to the area we was most interested in looking into. Below is all the research we collected. Sarah Bragg:
Research on Road Signs (History/Facts)
Section 64 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 gives this definition for a road sign:
Any object or device (whether fixed or portable) for conveying, to traffic on roads or any specified class of traffic, warnings, information, requirements, restrictions or prohibitions of any description -
(a)specified by regulations made by the Ministers acting jointly, or (b) authorised by the Secretary of State, and any line or mark on a road for so conveying such warnings, information, requirements,restrictions or prohibitions.
The earliest known piece of legislation about signage was passed in 1697 which permitted magistrates to erect signs at crossroads to indicate the route. In 1773 the General Turnpike Act meant that trustees of various schemes were required to show the distance to the nearest towns and sometimes London. At first signs were installed by organisations such as the National Cyclist Union and the Cyclists’ Touring Club, this was then followed by the Automobile Association (AA), the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) and local motoring clubs.
Early signs were mainly intended to warn cyclist of sharp corners and steep hills, with the latter showing a skull and crossbones. An example of a car warning sign was in the shape of a diamond, often advising the maximum load the bridge could carry. In 1903 there were a lot of different signs which caused a lot of confusion, especially as some signs did not serve a purpose anymore, due to this the government stepped in and created the Motor Car Act of 1903 which meant that local authorities had to erect signs only they deemed necessary.
Following the Motor Car Act in 1904 the government issued a notice that warning signs would be a red triangle, the reason for this is unknown. A solid red disc would be shown above a normal sign indicating that the instruction shown is not allowed. The general speed limit was 20 MPH, but some speed limits were enforced by using a solid white disc with the speed limit place underneath. (1904) In 1919 the Ministry of Transport was created to replace the Road Board (1910). One of the first acts the Ministry created was the classification of roads.
The Ministry of Transport appointed a committee to examine the use of signs on the highway. The result of this was the 1921 Memorandum. The government allowed the Ministry of Transport to make changes with out needing to pass a law through Parliament. The 1921 Memorandum was only advisory but most local authorities adopted these recommendations.
In the Memorandum of 1921 signs with iconic symbols such as a torch indicating a school, were to be placed on a rectangular plate measuring 12 X 21 inches. Underneath the symbol lettering should state the danger. Most of these symbols introduced are still used today (the school torch is not used). In 1929 the first three- aspect traffic lights were installed in Wolverhampton. (Memorandum No. 297)
In 1930 the Road Traffic Act meant that the Minister issued a notice advising, authorities to erect hazard signs warning some of the following: One-Way Streets, Road Junctions and Level- Crossings without Gates. In 1930 one sign the Minister asked to be made was a Dead Slow sign which was a warning and a required purpose. It was a red triangle surrounded by a red circle, their would also be a flashing beacon to warn motorists at night or in fog this was a innovative move. Also in the 1930 act was the abolition of the 20 MPH speed limit for vehicles carrying fewer than seven people.
After this Act a report followed which recommend a series of new signs, which were then legalised by the regulations. Some of the signs introduced included: Road Narrows, Narrow Bridge and Roundabout. Waiting signs were introduced and were white on blue enclosed in a red circle. In 1930 it was still possible for the AA and RAC to erect signs with their initials and a logo. The AA continued to use its own design to the annoyance of the Ministry of Transport and the RAC. Therefore in 1933 the Ministry regulated the look of signs for example black and white banded post for road signs. In 1934 flashing orange globes at pedestrian crossing were introduced (called Belisha beacon, named after the Transport Minister Hore-Belsiha who introduced them). After the Second World War Aluminium Alloy began to replace Cast iron in sign construction, because it was a lighter and cheaper material to make into signs. In 1944 a report of the Departmental Committee on Traffic signs took place but it was not made law until 1950. The report of 1944 changed the look of some signs, meaning a huge cost to authorities. The 1944 report also changed the look of the number 3 where it changed from having a flat top to having a curved edge. (3 changed to 3)
In 1949 the UN held a conference on road and motor transport, discussing issues which included road signs: This protocol brought UK up to date with the European practice. In 1957 there was an attempt to bring UK signs in line with the rest of Europe, an example of this was the school sign were the symbol was no longer a torch but school children carrying books.
In 1957 Sir Colin Anderson produced a report which recommended a number of changes to be adopted. These recommendations included; The adoption of lower- case letters after the initial capital and a blue background the colour already used on Continental motorways. The design was given to Jock Kinneir and his assistant Margaret Calvert.
By 1958 on the first stretch of motorway, the Preston Bypass (called the M6), the government felt that the normal signage used would be unsuitable for the high speed dual-carriageway roads.
Due to this report the motorway signs in use today still follow recommendations from this report. One Major change was the addition of numbers to scheme signs to indicate what number the junction was. The next major report was the Worboys report in 1963, this report came about because there was mounting criticism about road signs and the confusion they could cause. Another major concern was that in an age of developed mobility across boundaries signs should be recognisable wherever you may be.
A committee was established under Sir Walter Worboys to review road signs (with the exception of Motorways) with a report called the Worboys Report being published in 1963 which was a radical review of the signage used at the time and recommended a lot of changes including: Colour coding routes, the use of lower-case letters and the variation of letter size according to traffic speed (conducted research to test drivers reaction times).
Between 1957 and 1967 the government hired, two designers Jock Kinneir and his assistant and former student Margaret Calvert to design a new system after a graphic designer called Herbert Spencer proved how confusing road signs could be. Kinneir and Calvert devised a rigorous signage system which coordinated the lettering, colours, shapes and symbols for Britain’s new motorways. It was a very ambitious task.
John Kinneir was already one of Britain’s most accomplished graphic designers. He was born in Hampshire in 1917 and studied at Chelsea School of Art from 1935 to 1939. After the Second World War he was employed as a exhibition designer by the central office of information. Then he worked in the Design Research Unit, the multidisciplinary design group founded by Herbert Read a Historian. Kinneir had his first big commission when he designed the signage for Gatwick the new London airport, he asked Margaret Calvert to help with the project.
Margaret Calvert was born in 1936 in South Africa, she then moved to England as a teenager to study for a National Diploma in Design at Chelsea, there she was taught by Kinneir. In 1957 when Sir Colin Anderson was appointed chairman for the committee, this is when Kinneir was asked to design the signs.
At this time the Government was planning to build miles and miles of High-Speed motorways as part of an ambitious program, this was due to the fact that existing road could not cope with the millions of new British motorists.
Because it was so confusing and therefore dangerous, especially at high speeds, the need for motorway signage was considered highly URGENT. The members of the Anderson Committee Travelled around Europe to assess how other countries were dealing/addressing the problem. Most of the signs were unreadable and in capital letters.
After learning this information Kinneir and Calvert started developing a coherent system which would be very easy to read. They wanted the sign to only contain information that you would want to know when speeding past.
Their concept was that many signs would form a map of the junction ahead and includes a combination of upper and lower-case letters. A new typeface was formed called the Transport Alphabet. Also known as the “handwriting of Britain”. These signs were tested in an underground car park and row of houses near Hyde Park, this was done to determine suitable background colours and reading distances.
The first sign was shown in 1958 on part of the M6 where the system was approved.
After this both Kinneir and Calvert were part of the Worboys Report. Were they used the same rigorous approach, carefully chosen shapes and colours. (it conformed to the 1949 Geneva Protocol) Another major innovation of motorway signs was the new material used for the white lettering, which allowed them to be visible at night, by reflecting the light from car headlights. This allowed the non-reflective blue background to appear black at night, but it also matched the colour of road signs in Europe.
Kinneir and Calvert’s system also took into account the spacing, size and layout of the fonts so that reading would be so easy. This is normally unnoticed in their work, but is also hugely important in the development of road signs. Kinneir and Calvert kept refining their work, and in 1963 a revised version of the typeface was produced. After this huge success the pair went on to design the signs for British Rail in 1964, worked for the amy and designed many signage for airports.
In 1994 Kinneir sadly passed away, but his work remains a huge tribute to him. Over the years the signage has been modified, with some people complaining that Britain’s roads signs have become sloppy.
One big change was in the 1980’s when the Government introduced Brown Tourist signs, these where already in use in France. They were introduced in Kent and Nottinghamshire, this was a successful introduction for the brown road sign. Then in 1994 introductions of large coloured panels were introduced, which allowed certain important parts of the sign to pop so that motorist could read the signs even easier than before.
As the digital era approached, Kinneir and Calvert’s images and typeface are still used in a digital form, however some of their designs have lost some characteristics due to the repeated tracing and digitisation process. Due to how well Kinneir and Calvert signs are designed they normally go unnoticed to the public eye, as they are taken for granted. In the modern era, even Sat-Nav’s still use the original designs which also shows how the designs stood the test of time. Also it is stated that their system has helped more than 36 million motorist in the UK alone with their research and design.
Margaret Calvert has since been working with Henrik Kubel on a new digital version called New Transport. This new font also supports all Eastern European languages, and comes in six different weights for example: Thin, Bold and Medium.
(TAL)
Sarah’s mum Lucy Bragg is an avid collector of signs and is easily accessible for our civilian interview however Sarah also found these two emails for potential professional interviews in our film.
Although we emailed both we was unfortunately unable to get an interview from either.
Amber Cherry:
Following European and American practice, the committee wished to use upper and lower case type rather than the capitals used on Britain’s roads since 1933. [1] The German Din lettering was suggested but Kinneir rejected this on aesthetic grounds. Wanting a letterform with open counters and clear shapes he wrote his own specification. When he found that such a face did not exist, he and Calvert set about designing one themselves. When revised for the British road system this became known as Transport. Apart from appearing on Letraset sheets for a while, the font has not been available commercially.
Colour was carefully thought out. In part it was an aesthetic choice, in part it was suggested by the use of reflective materials and their costs. Black was considered for the background but was felt to be ‘too negative’. The blue chosen was the American Standard Interstate Blue Colour, which stood out from the countryside as well as giving good contrast to the white type.
It was produced on tiles rather like the bodies of metal type. These butted up to each other and ensured correct spacing by the many different contractors who were then responsible for the signs’ production. The stroke widths of the cap ‘I’ in the size of type used were the determining factors governing the size of elements and the distance between them. Colour system designed to make signs as clear as possible Used higher and lower case letters rather than the standard upper case letters that were used on signs previously – because of word recognition as it made it easier to recognise the word without needing to read the whole of it – the brain fills in the rest of the words you don’t actually look at Margaret and Jock created the new typeface (Transport) – and also created the symbols.
Previous draft of the Children Crossing sign had a grammar school boy with a satchel and a girl behind him (not holding hands) – current sign was used because it seemed more ‘caring’ – the girl is based on Margaret herself. The Men Working sign is typically joked about as looking like a man struggling with an umbrella – Margaret wishes she’d changed the design slightly to make the spade more obvious
“Ultra Marine Plus Azure Blue plus Zinc white”"My life changed dramatically when I went to Chelsea College of Art – they were serious about art! Life drawing was terribly important, and the way I draw pictograms all comes from that. It's all about shapes and seeing.”
Determined to illustrate the haphazard state of British road signage at the turn of the 1960s, the graphic designer Herbert Spencer drove from central London to the recently opened Heathrow London Airport and photographed each of the road signs that he came across along the way. He then published the result in two photographic essays in successive 1961 issues of his graphic design magazine Typographica.
When he started work on the signage for Britain’s first motorways in 1957, Jock Kinneir was already regarded as one of Britain’s most accomplished graphic designers. The government was planning to build hundreds of miles of high-speed motorways as part of an ambitious road construction programme. The existing roads could not cope with the millions of new British motorists who had started to drive in the 1950s as cars, such as the Morris Minor and Mini, became less expensive and more efficient.
By approaching the problem from an information design perspective, Kinneir and Calvert set about developing a coherent system which would be as easy to read – and understand – as possible. Kinneir said that he started with the question: “What do I want to know, trying to read a sign at speed” “Style never came into it,” recalled Calvert. “You were driving towards the absolute essence. How could we reduce the appearance to make the maximum sense and minimum cost.” they developed a new typeface, a refinement of Aksidenz Grotesk, for use in the signs. Later named Transport, it is recognisably modern as a sans serif font, but it is softer and curvier than the blunt modernist lettering used on continental European road signs. Kinneir and Calvert felt that these qualities would make it seem friendlier and more appealing to British drivers.
They tested the signs in an underground car park and mews on the Knightsbridge side of Hyde Park and then in the park itself, where the signs were propped up against trees to determine suitable background colours and reading distances. The first public appearance of the new signs took place in 1958 on the first motorway-standard road – the Preston by-pass in Lancashire (now part of the M6) – and the system was approved. Despite the complaints of a handful of conservative commentators that the signs were too big and abrasive, they were deemed a success.
Adopting the same rigorous approach to the organisation of information for road signs as for motorways, they compiled codes of carefully chosen shapes and colours. The codes conformed to the 1949 Geneva Protocol of using triangular signs to warn drivers, circles to issue commands, and rectangles to relay information. Just as their motorway signs consisted of white lettering against a blue background, they used white lettering for place names and yellow for road numbers against a green background on signage for primary roads, and black lettering against a white background for secondary routes.
A major innovation of the motorway signs was the use of a new material for the white lettering. This allowed them to be easily read at night by reflecting light from vehicle headlamps back in the direction it came from. The lettering thus contrasted well with the blue background, which being non-reflective appeared black at night, and could be read from a considerable distance. The medium weight font used was ideal for this as the reflected light tended to halo, making the text appear slightly bolder. But the white background of signs on roads of lower importance had the opposite effect and tended to spill over into the black letter forms. For these a bolder font was needed and Transport Heavy was born.
Transport Medium (as it came to be known) was also refined and adapted slightly from the motorway version. The characters of both weights were given notional tile outlines to facilitate to their correct spacing. Whilst these outlines were equivalent to the body of traditional letterpress type, alternative tile widths were prescribed for particular combinations of letters, what we would today call kerning, to improve appearance and readability.
the size of lettering used on traffic signs varies greatly depending upon the speed of traffic and how much information is shown. Other elements of the sign need to be scaled accordingly, and Kinneir and Calvert deserve as much credit for their system of spacing and layout that retains this proportionality as for the fonts themselves. They based their design rules upon the width of the stroke of the capital I in the Transport Medium font – a measure that would scale with the size of lettering. Thus the width of the sign border was specified as 1½ stroke widths, the route arm widths on map-type signs as 2½, 4 or 6 stroke widths (depending upon their status), and the gap between two unrelated blocks of text as 12 stroke widths
The Committee decided to adopt the continental style of using symbols rather than words on the road signs, and Calvert drew most of the pictograms in the friendly, curvaceous style of Transport. Many of her illustrations were inspired by aspects of her own life. The cow featured in the triangular sign warning drivers to watch out for farm animals on the road was based on Patience, a cow on her relatives’ Warwickshire farm. Eager to make the school children crossing sign more accessible, she replaced the image of a boy in a school cap leading a little girl, with one of a girl – modelled on a photograph of herself as a child – with a younger boy. Calvert described the old sign as being: “quite archaic, almost like an illustration from Enid Blyton… I wanted to make it more inclusive because comprehensives were starting up.”
Jock Kinneir died in 1994, but his work has remained a lasting tribute to him. His road signage system has been modified over the years, and its devotees often complain that Britain’s road signs have become progressively sloppier. It adapted well to brown background signing for tourist attractions in the 1980s, but then suffered somewhat from 1994 onwards with the introduction of large coloured panels – signs within signs.
"The ones with human forms and animals were mine,"
"The deer and horse I based on Eadweard Muybridge photographs of animals at speed, but the horse had to be foreshortened to fit the triangle. You see," she expands, '"each pictogram is a combination of positive and negative – the spaces are as important as the black for clarity."
"The reason you design a new letter form for a specific purpose is because there isn't one available ," says Calvert. "We analysed them and there wasn't one easily understood at speed. They were all too fat, too condensed, too this, too that." They used upper and lower cases for place name recognition, limited the amount of information to essentials, and introduced the graphic device of the branched, pointed line to indicate junction layout from the driver's point of view. It probably helped that Calvert was herself an early driver: her best–loved car later was an off–white Porsche 356C with maroon interior, on the back shelf of which her terrier Robin would sit.
"My life changed dramatically when I went to Chelsea College of Art – they were serious about art! Life drawing was terribly important, and the way I draw pictograms all comes from that. It's all about shapes and seeing."Following the success of Calvert and Kinneir's redesign of road signage, they tackled British Rail, BAA, the NHS and even directional signs for the Army. Sometime in the mid-fifties, Jock Kinneir found himself waiting at the same Green Line bus stop as David Alford, one of the architects in the process of designing a second London airport at Gatwick. On discovering that they were close neighbours, David asked Jock if he had ever designed a signing system for an airport. Although Jock’s answer was ‘no – nobody had’, he was nevertheless invited to undertake a study for one hundred guineas. Jock maintained that if he hadn’t used the same bus stop as David, all the signing commissions that were to follow may never have happened
Sir Colin Anderson, having worked with Jock Kinneir on the design of a labelling system for P&O Orient Line, and aware of our work on Gatwick, approached Jock on behalf of the Committee, with a completely open brief, apart from the request to use white lowercase lettering on a blue background, in line with Germany. (Sir Hugh Casson, Chairman of the Fine Arts Commission, had a strong preference for green – ‘as dark as old dinner jackets’ – and it became the ultimate choice for primary ‘A’ routes).
Jock received the following letter from Sir Colin: ‘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...’ (Letter dated 26 June 1958).
A request which we chose to ignore – believing that the German Sans serif (designed by an engineer), although demonstrably effective, would not sit well in the English landscape. So we started from scratch, with a specification for the ideal letterform, having looked at other possibilities, (including adapting the typeface Akzidenz Grotesk – a major influence regarding proportion and overall appearance).
Important details, such as the curve on the end of the lowercase l (borrowed from Johnston), and the obliquely cut curved strokes of the letters a, c, e, f, g, j, s, t and y, were specifically designed to help retain the word shape of place names when slightly letterspaced; a necessary compromise to offset the effect of ‘halation’, when viewed at the appropriate ‘decision-making’ distance, in full glare of headlights.
After the official opening of the Preston by-pass, in 1959, the new signs soon came under fire from the lettering establishment; notably the stone engraver and lettering designer David Kindersley who, uninvited, had for sometime been working on a new seriffed letterform, in capitals only, specifically for use in black letters on a white background. He was passionate in his belief that his oddly weighted seriffed ‘alphabet’ was the ultimate answer, regarding both legibility and economy. in true democratic fashion, despite public acclaim and the full support of the Committee, tests were soon initiated by the Road Research Laboratory to settle the issue. Rather comically, several volunteer airmen from Benton airport in Oxfordshire found themselves seated on a tiered platform, in the middle of the airfield, while a car drove towards them with alternate combinations of signs mounted on the roof; composed of place names in Kindersley, Transport, and for good measure the 1933 Johnston-based standard, still to be found in parts of central London. Ironically, Kindersley’s seriffed letters proved to be 3% more legible than Transport – a negligible amount given the unrealistic conditions governing the tests. As a consequence, the ultimate choice rested on appearance. In the words of one observer, ‘Kindersley’s letters were just so ugly.’ Alexandra Binding:
Anthony Hollis:
Here I will be looking into the different ways that motion graphics can be fluidly incorporated into a documentary style film. Looking into how motion graphics can be used to express stories/ideas in a different and more visual engaging way. This will be achieved by looking into how other documentaries have incorporated both film and motion graphics.
Font Men - SXSW 2014 Official Documentary Short Selection https://vimeo.com/88318922
Font man talks about how they create fonts. A way this documentary decided to show this process is by a motion graphic animation. As the interview describes his process the on screen animation match his words. Visualising them and making it was easy to understand and creates more interest. Looking into doing a type/ symbol animation would be beneficial as a big design icon for road signs is the the design of the typography and the symbols on the signs. Just talking about letters and symbols over footage of letter and symbols would not be interesting. Having motion graphics to visual show the design process would make it very simple to see the how these letters and symbols were created by the designers. Can go through a step by step process while the animation on screen transform in a creative way to match the words of the narrator. she++: The Documentary https://vimeo.com/63877454
She++ bases there animation with a female character. They use motion sequences with text to provide facts, options and a visual story. All these graphics use this girl character, using the character to visualise peoples story and faces in a smooth animation were you can easily understand the story behind the animation without using a narrator to explain over the animation. This creates a very interesting visual and tells a story in a clean and smooth way. This may be a interesting way to design the documentary as the man symbol of the road signs can be used as a character around the animations. The design of the man will fit the subject matter and can be used on both animation and on top of live footage which was not used in, “She ++” .
DuPont Corporate Narrative https://vimeo.com/85993669
DuPont Corporate is all about looking into the future illustrated by smooth clean motion graphics with a narration. What makes this interesting is the way the motion graphics were created to emphasise the themes of looking forward into the future. It uses a time line that keeps extending to the left, always progressing and always moving closer and closer the end of the animation. This links with the overall theme of the video to inform you of what will happen at a certain point of time and what will happen during the journey to that time. While the narration talks about the future the animation is showing these words in a visual interesting way but also subtly playing with the theme of looking into the future. Using lines in the animations to processed to the next animation and leading back to a time line of the destination. This subtle technique can be used with the motion graphics of the documentary to link in with the icon theses of signs that the documentary will cover. Have to play with ideas to see what themes will be in the documentary so that the motion graphics reflect these themes in both a visual and subtle way.
The Function of Music with Jad Abumrad https://vimeo.com/172016440
The function of music uses many creative technics to create a fluid documentary and take a very boring way of extracting information and turn it into both engaging and visual style. one to one interview are very bland and don't server much purpose more then to extract information and show a person face. This interview uses both film and motion techniques to create a very informative and interning documentary. First about the themes. This documentary is about sound and the documentary starts with a classic cassette player with the word, “question” written on the cassette which is then played uses the casuist player to ask a question about sound. Imminently playing with the subject matter and making a connection with the themes of sound. A clever way of starting the documentary to get people interested in the topic. Secondly, the documentary uses many quick cuts and fast transactions between the interview and different footage. The footage played between the cuts represented the words spoken over but in a more subtle visual way. Many different cassette types are shown but once the word, “organised” is spoken, the cassettes started to order and become the same. Representing the organisation. The cuts between these two different types of footage keeps the subject fresh and create a much more bigger interest visually then if we just saw a face talking. Finally, footage and graphics and used onto of each other to emphasis certain word/feelings felt during the interview. When the interviewee started to feel some feelings of hate the graphics overlaid red, rough and grunge style graphics to represent the mood of hate. When wave was mentioned a wave effect was applied. All of these effects also use music sheet overlay to emphasise the themes of music further.
Ed Ruscha: Buildings and Words https://vimeo.com/179859217
This documentary follows the life of a artist, going through how it all started. The documentary uses very quick slides/images to provide visual information quickly to the viewer. All the transactions follow a fluid patten by adapting and changing to the narration. The quick fluidity of the transaction keeps the subject matter very interesting. Always throwing new ideas and facts to the viewer that are relevant to the life. The story is always fresh and is always interesting by hoping from one topic to anther in a fast,constant and fluid way.
Maisie Middlewick:
• Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir are the pioneers of the iconic design in what we know well today as the UK’s motorway and road sign network. • Prior to the design and order we know today, there were different symbols, colours and typefaces commissioned by different bodies, this was demonstrated in designer Herbert Spencer's publication of two photographic essays in the graphic design magazine Typographica. Today’s network of signs is therefore known to reflect the opposite, not chaotic, but ordered – with a reoccurring clear design pioneered by Calvert and Kinneir.
Designer biographies:
Richard "Jock" Kinneir: (1917 –1994)
Margaret Calvert: 1936-
• Kinneir was born in 1917 in Hampshire, England.
• He studied at Chelsea School of Art in engraving from 1935-39.
• Post-World War II he was an exhibition designer at the Central Office of Information and then the Design Research Unit. • He opened his own practice in 1956 before being commissioned to design the signage network for Gatwick Airport.
• In 1957 he was commissioned as a designer by the Anderson Committee to review British motorway signage.And again in 1961 he and Margaret Calvert were commissioned by the Worboys Committee to create a signage system for all other British roads.
• In 1964 Calvert was made a partner of his practice – renamed Kinneir Calvert Associates.
• Calvert was born in South Africa in 1936 and moved to the UK as a teenager to study illustration with a National Diploma in Design at Chelsea School of Art.
• Here, she was employed by Jock Kinneir and became his assistant. She was recruited by him in producing the designs for Gatwick Airport signage.
• She talks of the personal influences of her life on her work in the design of road signs, for example her childhood cow, Patience inspired the cattle warning sign.
• She said of other artists who influenced the designs "The deer and horse I based on Eadweard Muybridge photographs of animals at speed, but the horse had to be foreshortened to fit the triangle.” These were mixed with the elements of clarity and simplicity that the road signs warning of danger had to convey, for them to be clear and easy to read there was an order to them. For instance, Calvert said "each pictogram is a combination of positive and negative – the spaces are as important as the black for clarity."
Quotes from the designers:
• . “You were driving towards the absolute essence. How could we reduce the appearance to make the maximum sense and minimum cost.” – Margaret Calvert
• “It is sad but true to say that most of us take our surroundings for granted, Direction signs and street names, for instance, are as vital as a drop of oil in an engine, without which the moving parts would seize up; one can picture the effect of the removal of this category of information on drivers in a busy city or on pedestrians trying to find their way in a large building complex. It is a need which has bred a sub-division of graphic design with more influence on the appearance of our surroundings than any other.” – Jock Kinneir
As well as this Maisie led our discussions on filming our project and produced and booked a list of equipment we needed to make our film from CLR.
Nawaraj Gurung:
50 years ago, the way we navigated around Britain changed. The government had commissioned two designers - Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir - to create a unified way to lay out road signs that would make it easier for drivers to quickly read and understand signs, and these were rolled out across the countries to create a system that remains today.
50 year later, 42 of the UK's leading graphics designers and artists have paid tribute to this by creating their own versions of road signs - some funny, some thoughtful and some just taking the piss.
The project was curated by Made North and forms the basis of a free exhibition at London's Design Museum. The museum is also showing off some of Jock and Margaret's original designs including a version of the Road Works sign created for the exhibition by Margaret. (http:// www.britishroadsignproject.co.uk/signs/)
Sir Peter Blake is one of the leading figures in the art world, often referred to as the Godfather of British Pop Art. Best known for the iconic album cover he produced for the Beatles ‘Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’, Blake’s work is inspired by his love affair with icons and the ephemera of popular culture.
FUEL design group was founded in 1991. From the outset they combined varied commissions with projects of their own, including a self-published magazine, often containing thought provoking messages, these bold graphic statements served as a developing manifesto. Far from being monographs these books examined the accepted notions of graphic design, illustrating ideas and preoccupations to explore themes of authorship.
Kate Gibb has worked as a printmaker and illustrator for over twenty years from her print studio in Paddington. A silkscreen obsessive, her early studies in printed textiles fuelled her inherent love of colour and pattern which continually provide the basis for the majority of her work. Commercially she is renowned for her music-related sleeve artwork, most notably for a long standing relationship with The Chemical Brothers.
Aubrey Powell co-founded the album cover design company Hipgnosis with Storm Thorgerson in 1967. The company ran successfully for 15 years until 1982. Hipgnosis created some of the most innovative and surreal record cover art of the 1960s, 70s and 80s for many of the big name rock bands of the era including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Yes, Genesis, 10cc, Peter Gabriel, Bad Company, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Scorpions, Styx, Syd Barrett and Black Sabbath. Hipgnosis were nominated five times for Grammy Awards.
Mark Bonner graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1993 and worked at The Partners, Carter Wong & Partners and SAS before co-founding multi-disciplinary graphics group GBH In 1999. Now 20 strong, GBH works internationally across disciplines solving communications problems for clients such as Apple, Puma, Royal Mail, Land Securities, Eurostar, Flos, Starck Network, SBE Entertainment, Virgin Galactic and Yotel.
Here are some of the other independent artists that have used the idea of signs in playful ways from sculptures to graffiti, etc.
Japanese artist Yuki Matsueda creates sculptures in which an element of the artwork bulges out of the canvas leaving the rest behind. It’s as if a single element was magically brought to life. The 34- year old doctor (he has a Ph.D. in Design) uses a heat press to mold PET plastic into shapes that hold the bulging element in mid-air, creating a surreal, dreamlike sequence of events that appear frozen in time.
Designer Boris Bally hails from the small state of Rhode Island and uses metal traffic signs (along with weapon parts and other found objects) as his medium. His philosophy about design is about merging different contexts and ideas and Bally’s approach stems from his desire to combine art, design, and craft. With this he creates something that is very much his own and unique.
While not entirely legal, Clet Abraham’s whimsical alterations of Europe’s omnipresent road signs take care not to alter the main function of the originals. “I don’t damage the signs – because I use stickers – but I wake up attention and I create a dialogue,” he says. He has also worked in several other European cities, as well as in New York, where local authorities have mostly turned a blind eye.
Louise Stanley:
Louise’s research was 46 pages long and included all official British signs from the 1964 Traffic Signs and regulations. This included the signs number, measurements and meanings. Although I have not included all of her research on here I have taken some examples from each section of road signs she included; Warning Signs 501 - 573, Regulatory Signs 601 - 645, Directional Informatory Signs 701 - 746, Other Informatory Signs 801 - 843, Directional Motorway Signs 901 - 920 and Markings on the road 1001 - 1039.
Katy Holehouse:
It was decided that instead of me doing the research I would start on the paper work, finding talent for our films and writing the script for our film. Basic running order: Functionality Break down of design (Highway Code) History of the road signs (interview with Sarah's dad) Break down of design (typeface, colours and symbols) (poss. Interview with a graphic designer?) Fun art around road signage Conclusion (how the design was so good it's never been changed since - deep quote from Jock 'like oil in a car, unappreciated’) (Narrator needed not shown on screen)
Possible interview questions for Bragg’s: How did you get into sign collecting? Why do you like to collect signs? How much do the road signs cost? What do some of the signs mean? Where do you get the road signs from? What is your favourite road sign and why? Do you think signs are a British Classic design? Are there any interesting stories about your collection? What do you like better the new signs or old signs? Where did you first buy Road Signs? How many do you own?
Possible interview questions for designer: What is your favourite road sign and why? Do you think signs are a British Classic design? Are there any interesting stories about your collection? What do you like better the new signs or old signs? How has the revamping of British road signs affected the design industry? What makes a classical design?
After gathering everyones research and placing it into this production pack I printed all of the research out and highlighted the points I wanted to include in the script. I then wrote out two basic scripts, one normal and the other a two column script split into visual and audio.
Here is a list of websites / videos we shared with each other on our group chat that we used as research: https://designmuseum.org/designers/jock-kinneir-and-margaret-calvert http://thebrownsignway.blogspot.co.uk/p/who-what-how-when-wheres-of-brown.html http:// www.unece.org/ fileadmin/DAM/ trans/conventn/ Convention_on_ Road_Traffic_of_ 1949.pdf http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ motoring/news/10353447/The- history-of-British-road-signs.html http:// www.newtransport.co.uk http:// www.britishroadsignproject.co.uk/ jock-kinneir-margaret-calvert/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyBrrmDw6-k&app=desktop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QypmXbwD1k&app=desktop http://untappedcities.com/2013/07/16/street-art-french-artist-clet-abraham-hacks-road-signs/ https://vimeo.com/172016440 http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/design/graphics/designandmarketrev1.shtml
Article: http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/graphic-design/see-road-signs-redesigned- by-42-leading- graphic-designers-artist/ http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/a-design-to-sign-roads-by http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140417-road-designs-that-trick-our-minds http://www.newtransport.co.uk