Woman at Work

Vol.co, an imprint of Thames & Hudson delivered Woman at Work today. I was a backer of the production so got to see my name immortalised in print in the special edition.

Margaret Calvert is one of the most important British graphic designers of our time. Her groundbreaking work on the signs for the British national road network means that it is almost impossible to travel anywhere in the UK and not benefit from her ultra-clear typography and cheerful pictograms. Her work has provided the gold standard for international highway directional signs. In a parallel career she became an inspirational teacher at the Royal College of Art, where for nearly four decades she taught a generation of graphic designers, many of them going on to establish worldwide reputations.

Born in South Africa in 1936, Margaret came to the UK with her mother and sister in 1950. After studying illustration and printmaking at Chelsea School of Art, she was invited by visiting tutor Jock Kinneir to assist him on designing the signs for Gatwick Airport (she had just turned 21). When Kinneir was put in charge of designing a new system for British road signs, it was the beginning of a long working partnership that led to the creation of the now famous road signing for the motorways alongside a complementary approach for the entire network, including pictograms, and onto work for the British Airports Authority, British Rail and the Tyne and Wear Metro in 1980. Margaret designed the lettering for the latter project, which is now available from Monotype as the Calvert typeface.