So you get to share some of my photos. There are far too many even for a geek like me, so you get to see the ones on a theme of "directional signage". Sounds fascinating, huh?
But it is. The earliest signs make extensive use of "manicules", or what I learned were called "bishop's fingers". Presumably on the grounds that an arrow was a rather vulgar thing to present people with, while a manicule offered a human touch.
Manicules were used both to indicate the direction in which you should go, but also to draw your attention to a particular piece of information -- as here:
The Underground then developed a more cohesive corporate identity in which the famous "roundel" symbol found new use as a sort of bulls-eye for an arrow:
Incidentally, notice how Earl's Court seems to have lost its apostrophe in that sign?
The feathered arrow became the standard directional indicator for many decades.
Alas, there was no room for such frivolity in the Modern years of the 1960s, so the new "Transport alphabet" arrows swept away the traditional forms. Not, I would say, to particularly strong graphic effect:
Compare that sign to this traditional one -- which is both informative and hugely elegant as a piece of graphic design:
But even the bog-standard earlier signs had a warmth and character to them:
I find myself intrigued by the nails...
Let's end with this, a glorious sign from the Grouping era (1923-1947). I adore that LNER lozenge -- very, very classy:
Interestingly, at the time of Grouping in the early 1920s (when over a hundred independent British railway companies were forcibly "grouped" into the Big Four), the North Eastern Railway was hugely influential. The eastern grouping, even though it also included such massive companies as the Great Northern Railway, the Great Eastern Railway, and the North British Railway, was therefore named the London & North Eastern Railway and, when it came to devising a logo, notice how "NE" is in larger type than "L" or "R". It was clearly at the heart of this group.
5 comments:
adore this post. The first time I visited London, I was tickled with the British English "Way Out" where American English would say "Exit." Thank you, LeDuc, for the enjoyable walk down happy memory lane.
I'm afraid Exit is mostly replacing Way Out (which I always enjoyed for its hippy-ish resonances. A bit like references to an "alternative" station (presumably one which practices a much more eco-friendly lifestyle?). The tube fortunately clings on to it, though.
The Tube is going the "exit" route though.
The announcements (ugh!) on the Victoria Line at Green Park station used until recently to advise "Alight here for Buckingham Palace". Now they say "Exit for Buckingham Palace" which is ungrammatical as well as ugly.
LNER or L.N.E.R.?
As a child I was told that a man had gone to the company and asked whether, if he could save them £1000 per annum, they would give him a job. They agreed. "Leave off the full points from the rolling stock" he advised. "The paint and labour saved will amount to more than £1000."
Whether or not it did, I've no idea, but the company did abandon the stops after the initials on their wagons.
Don't know about the LNER points (sic), but they initially had an ampersand -- L&NER. It was dropped pretty quickly.
Simplification has long been the railway way: what was "M & GN Jt Ry" became M&GN pretty sharpish.
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