As part of the first brief I had to choose a location for the exhibition the poster is advertising. The only requirements for this were that it was a real place and that it was in some way relevant to the designer.
Margaret Calvert is so well known for her work to do with transport and I wanted my venue to reflect this. My first thought was to find a location that would allow visitors to drive around the exhibition however I realised that this wouldn’t be a particularly great way of displaying the signs for three main reasons: the first is that this would have the potential to be very dangerous because the signs could confuse drivers and lead to accidents; the second was that I really struggled to find a site that would be appropriate and have any relevance to Margaret Calvert; the third and most important is that I decided that this format would not work because it wouldn’t actually encourage people to look at road signs.
My next idea was to hold the exhibition in a disused London Underground Station. I thought this would link nicely to Margaret Calvert work which includes the Rail Alphabet Typeface as well being in the city in which she studied (Calvert studied at Chelsea College of Art). I then had to pick a station and after looking into some of the disused stations I decided on Aldwych Tube Station. There were a number of reasons for this decision, the first is that its location is very central and it was a very well established station as it was in use for nearly 100 years. Secondly, the station was in use when Margaret Calvert started working. And finally Aldwych Station is still used for filming which means that it would still be in a good condition and could be used for my exhibition.
Additionally the date I picked for my exhibition is significant because it would be on the 55th anniversary of Margaret Calvert and Jack Kinneir’s new sign system becoming law (1st January 1965). The Worboys Committee commissioned the redesign in 1963.
Lois Faye Design 