The intention was to create a system that would improve “clarification” at stations, Dewar says, as well as adapt to more modern needs (like showing where passengers can charge their phones). This was the Calvert and Kubel-designed typeface New Rail Alphabet, later revised as Rail Alphabet 2. The typeface in developmentįollowing a private stakeholder event with nearly 100 reviewers in attendance, the more revolutionary approach was taken. When Spaceagency was appointed in 2018 it worked up three different design routes, which sat on a spectrum of what Dewar called “evolution to revolution” he says. These have been put on display for the first time as part of the Margaret Calvert: Woman at Work exhibition at the Design Museum.Īnthony Dewar, Network Rail’s head of buildings and architecture, tells Design Week that the project has been in the works for two years.
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The design principles and implemented strategy will be published in a Network Rail wayfinding manual developed by Spaceagency. Spaceagency director Sarah Manning says Calvert and Kubel’s work informed “a coherent, visually consistent graphic vocabulary where typeface and pictograms merge into a single graphic language”. This was extended to a full suite of pictograms. The typeface dovetails with a wayfinding system for stations featuring updated pictograms, including a Wi-Fi symbol and a gender-neutral toilet sign, designed by Spaceagency which created a design language to transform National Rail signs from dark blue to monochrome in a bid to simplify and declutter.
Courtesy of Felix Speller for the Design Museum The Rail Alphabet 2 typeface has been created in collaboration with type designer Henrik Kubel and is part of a wayfinding system devised and executed by London-based experiential design consultancy Spaceagency, which also worked on strategy around the project.
Margaret Calvert has designed a new customised typeface in collaboration with Network Rail, which is set to roll out across wayfinding systems at its stations.