Street Name Signs, Design magazine 195

A feature by Denis Cheetham and Noel Carrington investigating the need to redesign local street names and house numbering

In March 1965, Design magazine published a feature investigating the need to redesign local street names and house numbering following the redesign of Britain’s motorway signage. In the second of a two-part series, Denis Cheetham quotes Jock Kinneir:

Photograph of a building on a street corner crammed with a myriad of lettering and signage.
Image from original article © Visual Arts Data Service

I am not against variety, but I am against bad siting and against weak lettering. It’s all right so long as the lettering is bold enough and big enough: variety can give a regional atmosphere, an urban character of a very specific kind, especially in an urban area that is a distinctive entity. But the lettering has got to be in the right place, and the siting must be standardised wherever possible.

Jock Kinneir, 19651

  1. Design magazine 195, March 1965 ↩︎