The Calvert typeface in a beautiful setting
The building of the West London Academy received a new voice in 2006, with the great way finding signage beautifully designed by the Graphic Thought Facility.
Featuring beautiful icons, powerful and visible colours and the marvels of the Calvert typeface, the designs seem to fit perfectly with the building and it’s modernist interiors.
The pictograms blend nicely with the type
The GTF was founded in 1990 at the beginning of the London graphic design recession. The founders, Paul Neale, Andy Stevens and Nigel Robinson were MA colleagues at the Royal College of Art and founded the business throughout the first years with part-time jobs, government schemes and a game-show prize. Since then, they became one of the
most prestigious graphic design agency in the London scene, doing design work for clients such as the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Carnegie Museum of Art, the Tate Museum, Nokia or British Council. Their latest show is a one-agency exhibition showcasing their work, held at The Art Institute of Chicago, which closed this August.
The big numbers on the staircases drew my attention. It’s the first time I see a floor number this beautiful and, well, big. I think it’s extremely useful and, if not, at least beautiful to look at. The typeface used throughout the pieces is designed by Margaret Calvert back in 1980 1. She is responsible for most of the road signage in the UK, and invented some widely used road pictograms,
such as the famous “men at work” (man and shovel) or “children crossing the road” 2. Her typefaces are used by the British Railway System (Rail Alphabet typeface) and the Tyne and Wear Metro (Calvert typeface) in North East England. Via
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