The origins of our road sign design
Our system as it stands…
The Transport type (UK), used in Irish road signs, is intended for Upper and Lowercase use, and no italic version was designed by its originators. Ireland, however, employs italics for Irish Place names and all uppercase English names. Irish is set above the English.How did we get here?
Ireland adopted the Transport type designed for UK roads by Jock Kinneir, a design lecturer at the Royal College of Art, and Margaret Calvert, his assistant, in the late 1950’s and early 1960s; it has since achieved recognition as something of a design classic and became the model upon which many national road sign schemes are based. There is a good summary of the process at the Design Museum’s website. There’s also a little here around the controversy which surrounded its evolution.“This is a true design success story, a typeface so clear and legible most people don’t realise it has been designed at all” (Greer, 2006)
So, where did it all go wrong? …
Reduced effectiveness of Irish road signs design
There are many issues with the design of our current road signs, and Ireland has earned a negative reputation for signposting and the quality of our roads (Bord Fáilte, 2000). In terms of the typographic design of our signs, however, there is little research available, but much is available internationally which defines the Irish ‘design’ as inefficient and inappropriate. Here are a few examples...Using uppercase for English place names
Upper and lower case place names achieve better clarity in the same space as upper case, in part because the ‘shape’ of letters and words is more pronounced. Moreover, the Transport typeface was specifically designed to be used in upper and lowercase and not to do so thwarts its intent. More on this topic, here.
Lack of letter space in uppercase place names
When reading, the eye must rapidly establish individual letters and the overall word (Larson 2004), this is more difficult in all uppercase configurations. Letter spacing should be increased when using uppercase text, this allows the eye to recognise individual letter shapes, where word shape is not a guide. Where this is used the effect negates the increased size factor achieved by an uppercase word. American studies (Lees 1970) show that all text in highway signs required spacing as much as 40% increased over standard spacing – to achieve equal legibility. This has not been followed in Irish signs, with the uppercase being spaced in a tight, (and variable!) setting. If this practise is followed sign sizes should be increased, or legibility suffers. More practically – upper and lowercase should be used.
Transport typeface corrupted
The typeface used for Irish language place names uses modified characters which damage the legibility. These alterations were made without the assistance of an experienced designer and no significant testing was undertaken. Inexpert handling of drawing new letters is likely to cause confusion – an uppercase faux Irish ‘A’ (In lowercase style) and a lowercase ‘i’ without a dot are examples. Characters commonly mistaken for each other (Jury 2002) must receive particular attention from the designer of road signs, this is confirmed by research (Spencer et al. 1973). Lowercase ‘a’ and ‘o’ are cited as such problematic letter forms. See ‘Old Irish meets modern European’for more on this.
First language, or foreign language?
Irish place names are set in first position on signs, in line with the Official Languages Act. Setting the Irish names in italics is more consistent with the treatment of a foreign language, as is the publishing convention. More on this topic, here.
Nor is italic considered a suitable discriminator…
“In single or few words, style in typography is less of a discriminating factor than weight” (Spencer et al. 1973)
Force inclined type, rather than italic
Furthermore italics are not recommended for road sign use. To make matters worse, there is no correctly designed italic version of the Transport type. The Irish ‘italic’ is force inclined – damaging the quality of the letter forms as originally designed.
Time for change?
Recent legislation has made the position of the Irish language a clear and visible part of our national identity. High-speed roads will soon cross the country for the first time and efficient signs will yield benefits in safety – and road users time. Our ageing population profile will soon exacerbate some of the legibility issues.
Knowledge economy
In Ireland’s positioning as a Research & Development led economy, carefully researched and highly-effective road signs will be a strong visual statement about our commitment to design. And, would ultimately become a part of a new brand Ireland. Well designed signs will also remove the necessity for increasingly large signs across the country, delivering a cost-effective solution.
Shoulders of giants
Our late start can be turned to our advantage. Much research and development has been done in this area, most notably in the US in recent years (more on that later), we can harness and build on this knowledge (without regard to the ‘baggage’ of previous signs).
What is the legal context for Ireland’s bilingual signs?
I’ve given a brief summary, here