Margaret Vivienne Calvert | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Margaret Calvert in 2019 | |
| Born | (1936-05-12)12 May 1936 (age 88) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | St Paul's Girls' School, London |
| Alma mater | Chelsea College of Arts, London |
| Occupation(s) | Typographer and graphic designer |
| Years active | 1957–present |
| Known for | Design ofroad signs in the United Kingdom,Crown Dependencies andBritish Overseas Territories. |
| Notable work | |
| Awards | Officer of the Order of the British Empire |
Margaret Vivienne Calvert[1]OBE RDI (born 1936) is a Britishtypographer andgraphic designer who, with colleagueJock Kinneir, designed many of the road signs used throughout the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies, and British Overseas Territories, as well as theTransport font used on road signs, theRail Alphabet font used on theBritish railway system, and an early version of the signs used in airports. The typeface developed by Kinneir and Calvert was further developed into New Transport and used for the single domainGOV.UK website in the United Kingdom.[2]
Born in South Africa, Calvert moved to England in 1950, where she studied atSt Paul's Girls' School and theChelsea College of Art. Kinneir, her tutor there, asked her to help him design the signs forGatwick Airport. They chose the black on yellow scheme for the signs after researching the most effective combination.[3] They also designed luggage labels forP & O Lines in 1957.[4][5]
In 1957, Kinneir was appointed head of British signs for Britain's roads. He then hired Calvert[6] to redesign theroad sign system and she came up with simple, easy-to-understandpictograms, including the signs for 'men at work' (a man digging), 'farm animals' (based on a cow named Patience that lived on a farm near to where she grew up), and 'schoolchildren nearby' (a girl leading a boy by the hand, which she said were actually modelled after herself), using the European protocol of triangular signs for warnings and circles for mandatory restrictions.[7] TheWorboys Committee was formed by the British government in July 1963 to review signage on all British roads.
In addition to her road signs, Calvert has designed commercialfonts forMonotype, including the eponymousCalvert font, a slab serif design which she created in 1980. It originated in a 1970s proposal to the French new town ofSaint Quentin-en-Yvelines for a new font to provide a visual identity for the town. However, the slab-serif typeface and three-dimensional letter shapes were rejected.[5] The font was later adopted by theTyne and Wear Metro system as well as north-east England bus and ferry services in the 1980s.[8]
In 2020 a new version of the font used in the UK rail system was introduced,Rail Alphabet 2. It was designed in collaboration with Henrik Kubel.[9]
Calvert taught at theRoyal College of Art for almost 40 years and was head of graphics from 1987 to 1991.[5]
Calvert was awarded an honorary degree by theUniversity of the Arts London in 2004.[10]
She appeared on thefourteenth season of the famous motoring show,Top Gear on 3 January 2010. James May interviewed her in a 2009Vauxhall Insignia VXR, talking about the design process of the UK road signs.[11]
She was made aRoyal Designer for Industry for Graphic Design in 2011.[12] In 2015, she was presented with theD&AD President's Award.[13]
Calvert was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to typography and road safety.[1][14][15]
In June 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship byArts University Bournemouth alongside dancerDarcey Bussell, costume designerJenny Beavan OBE and director and screenwriterEdgar Wright.[16]
A retrospective exhibition of her work,Margaret Calvert: Woman at Work,[9] was held from 21 October 2020 till 10 January 2021 at theDesign Museum in London.[5]
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![UK road sign warning of wild animals, inspired by Eadweard Muybridge's photographs of animals in motion.[17]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aUK_traffic_sign_551.svg)
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