Ralf Herrmann:
Wayfinding & Typography

At the University of Applied Sciences Berlin an empirical study was conducted by Sven Neumann to test the legibility of nine typefaces, including my own Wayfinding Sans typeface. The use of type in this study was based on the recommendations of the German legibility norm DIN 1450. This ensured that the study reflected a real-world [...]

Usually, when I do my road trips to take pictures of road sigs for my collection, I am most interested in, how these signs look from the driver’s point of view. But now and then I also get out of the car and take some more interesting photos. Here are some selected images from the [...]

In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) the road traffic regulations were revised in the 1970s. The GDR had signed the treaty of the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals (1969) and in the years 1974 till 1978 the official norm for the design and content of road signs was changed significantly. The new, quite remarkable layout also [...]

Top Gear’s Jeremy May talks to Margaret Calvert, who, along with colleague Jock Kinneir, designed many of the road signs used throughout Great Britain.

Over the last couple of years I have researched the design and use of typefaces used for signage, especially road signage.

The old Swiss traffic sign font is called SNV (“Schweizerische Normen-Vereinigung”). It is a very geometric typeface with obvious legibility problems.

The main typeface used in Italy is called Alfabeto Normale and is a bolder version of the British Transport alphabet. From its use in Spain it is also known as Carreta Conventional or CCRIGE and it is available as Traffic Type Spain from URW++.