Margaret Calvert

Margaret Calvert (born 1936) is a typographer and graphic designer who, with colleague Jock Kinneir, designed many of the road signs used throughout Great Britain, as well as the Transport font used on road signs and the Rail Alphabet font used on the British railway system and an early version of the signs used in airports.

Born in South Africa, Calvert moved to England in 1950, she studied at the Chelsea College of Art. Kinneir, her tutor there, asked her to help him design the signs for Gatwick Airport, where they chose the black on yellow scheme for the signs after researching the most effective combination.^[1]

In 1957, Kinneir was appointed head of signs for Britain's roads. He then hired Calvert to redesign the road sign system and she came up with simple, easy-to-understand pictograms, most notably 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, whom she later revealed to be herself), based on pre-existing European road signs.

In addition to her road signs, she has designed commercial fonts for Monotype, including the eponymous Calvert font, which she created for use on the Tyne and Wear Metro system.^[2] She was awarded an honorary degree by the University of the Arts London in 2004.

She appeared on Top Gear on 3 January 2010 talking about the design process of the UK road signs. James interviewd her in a 2009 Vauxhall Insignia. ^[3]

See also

• Worboys Committee

Footnotes

1. ^ "The Time of the Signs". Frieze. http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/the_time_of_the_signs. Retrieved 22 June 2009. 
2. ^ "Calvert". Identifont. http://www.identifont.com/show?H3. Retrieved 9 March 2006. 
3. ^ Top Gear S14E07 programme notes

References

• Sears, Neil (29 May 2004). "After 40 Years, The Girl On The School Sign Steps Out". Daily Mail. http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/features/calvertsigns.htm. 
• Design Museum - Jock Kinneir + Margaret Calvert, URL accessed 16 May 2006

Persondata
Name	Calvert, Margaret
Alternative names
Short description	English graphic designer and typographer
Date of birth	1936
Place of birth	South Africa
Date of death
Place of death