## Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert’s work | Key Achievements at the Intersection of Public Design and Information Design ### **1.** UK Road Signage System (1957–1965) - **Context**: With the postwar rise of motorization and the expansion of the UK motorway network, a new system of road signage was urgently needed. - **Achievements**: - Developed the highly legible **Transport typeface**. - Established consistent rules for color and form (blue with white = motorways, green = major routes, white = local roads). - Introduced pictograms for international comprehensibility (e.g., the school crossing sign modeled after Calvert herself). - **Significance**: Elevated design from mere decoration to **a system of instant information transfer**, a concept close to what we now call UX design. ### **2.** Airport and Railway Signage - **Gatwick Airport (1957)**: Created an intuitive wayfinding system for passengers. - **British Rail (1960s)**: Introduced a unified set of railway signs. - **Significance**: Built a **public interface** that allowed diverse users—foreigners, those with limited literacy, first-time visitors—to navigate with ease. ### **3.** Typographic Innovation - **Transport Typeface**: Engineered specifically for road signs, ensuring readability from long distances at high speed. - **Calvert Typeface**: Designed for the Tyne & Wear Metro, combining **approachability** with **trustworthiness**. - **Significance**: Positioned typography as a **tool for information delivery**, optimizing the public user experience. ### **4.** Design Process and Human-Centered Approach - Their projects incorporated early forms of **user research and cognitive testing**. - Example: Field tests measured legibility and comprehension, with findings directly influencing design iterations. - **Significance**: Anticipated today’s **information design** and **human-centered UX methodologies**. ## **Conclusion** The achievements of **Jock Kinneir** and **Margaret Calvert** bridged: - **Public Design** (as social infrastructure embedded in everyday life) - **Information Design** (as a universal system for clarity and accessibility). Their practice embodied an early vision of **“UX embedded in society”**. From motorway signs to typefaces for metro systems, they laid the groundwork for modern wayfinding, UI, and information architecture. ## Reference - [Jock Kinneir Library](https://jockkinneirlibrary.org/) - [Biography \| Jock Kinneir Library](https://jockkinneirlibrary.org/jock-kinneir-biography) - [“It was such an important job that affected everybody”: Margaret Calvert in conversation with It’s Nice That](https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/margaret-calvert-in-conversation-graphic-design-081019)