Introduction
Margaret Vivienne Calvert OBE RDI(born 1936) is a British typographer and graphic designer who, with colleague Jock Kinneir, designed many of the road signs used throughout the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies, and British overseas territories, as well as the Transport font used on road signs, the Rail Alphabet font used on the British 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 domain GOV.UK website in the United Kingdom.
Born in South Africa, Calvert moved to England in 1950, where she studied at St Paul's Girls' School and at the Chelsea College of Art. Kinneir, her tutor there, asked her to help him design the signs for Gatwick Airport.They chose the black on yellow scheme for the signs after researching the most effective combination.
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, 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), using the European protocol of triangular signs for warnings and circles for mandatory restrictions. The Worboys 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 commercial fonts for Monotype, including the eponymous Calvert font, a slab serif design which she created in 1980 for use on the Tyne and Wear Metro system.
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 May interviewed her in a 2009 Vauxhall Insignia.
She was made a Royal Designer for Industry for Graphic Design in 2011. In 2015, Calvert was presented with the D&AD President's Award.
Calvert was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to typography and road safety.
In June 2018 Calvert was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Arts University Bournemouth alongside dancer Darcey Bussell, costume designer Jenny Beavan OBE and director and screenwriter Edgar Wright.
Gallery of work
Transport typeface, used on road signs in the UK and several other countries
Rail Alphabet typeface, used throughout British Rail and formerly the National Health Service in the UK
Motorway typeface, used for road numbering on UK motorways
Calvert typeface, on a sign from Haymarket station on the Tyne and Wear Metro
Calvert typeface on the Tyne and Wear Metro
Roadworks sign used in the UK, one of the pictographic signs designed by Calvert ahead of the 1963 Worboys Review
UK road sign warning of farm animals, based on a cow Calvert remembered from her childhood
UK road sign warning of wild animals, inspired by Eadweard Muybridge's photographs of animals in motion.
UK road sign warning of schoolchildren, one of the pictographic signs designed by Calvert ahead of the 1963 Worboys Review