Richard "Jock" Kinneir (11 February 1917 – 23 August 1994) was a British

typographer Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

and

graphic designer A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming ...

who, with his colleague Margaret Calvert, designed many of the road signs used throughout the United Kingdom,

Crown Dependencies The Crown Dependencies are three dependent territory, offshore island territories in the British Islands that are self-governing possessions of the The Crown, British Crown: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, both lo ...

, and

British Overseas Territories The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

. Their system has become a model for modern road signage.

Background

Kinneir was born in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

in 1917. He studied engraving at the Chelsea School of Art from 1935 to 1939. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Kinneir was employed as an exhibition designer by the Central Office of Information. He next worked for the

Design Research Unit The Design Research Unit (DRU) was one of the first generation of British design, design consultancies combining expertise in architecture, graphics and industrial design. It was established in 1943 by the poet Herbert Read, architect Misha Black ...

, and then opened his own practice in 1956. Kinneir taught at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

, where he was head of the graphic design department. He also taught part-time at the Chelsea School of Art. Kinneir and his wife Joan had three children and seven grandchildren.

Career

Kinneir's first large commission was the design of the signage for

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport , also known as London Gatwick Airport (), is the Airports of London, secondary international airport serving London, West Sussex and Surrey. It is located near Crawley in West Sussex, south of Central London. In 2024, Gatwic ...

. He chose one of his students at Chelsea, Margaret Calvert, to assist him. When Sir Colin Anderson, the chairman of P&O read about the Gatwick signage, he chose Kinneir to design a baggage labelling system for P&O. In 1957 Anderson was appointed chairman of the government committee formed to design signs for the new British motorway network. The objective was to produce signs that could be read at speed. Kinneir was commissioned as the designer. Kinneir and Calvert developed a new

typeface A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...

for this commission, based on

Akzidenz Grotesk Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry of Berlin in 1898. ' indicates its intended use as a typeface for commercial print runs such as publicity, tickets and forms, as opposed to fine p ...

. This typeface was later named

Transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

. It was first used for the Preston By-pass in 1958. The original road sign maquettes (models) produced by Kinneir and Calvert for a presentation to the Ministry of Transport are now held at the St Bride Library, a print and typographical library in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. T. G. Usborne, the

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

official in charge of the Anderson Committee, then formed a new committee under Sir Walter Worboys to review signage on all other British roads, in addition to motorways. In 1964 Kinnear made Margaret Calvert a partner and renamed his practice Kinneir Calvert Associates. The partnership devised a code of carefully chosen shapes and colours that largely complied with the protocol proposed by the 1949 UN World Conference on Road and Motor Transport. Kinneir and Calvert then later completed other design projects. They introduced the

Rail Alphabet Rail Alphabet is a Sans-serif#Neo-grotesque, neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert for signage on the British Rail network. First used at Liverpool Street station, it was then adopted by the Design Res ...

typeface for

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

. They also worked for hospitals, the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

and for other airports.

References

Design Museum – Jock Kinneir + Margaret Calvert, URL accessed 21 May 2017The Jock Kinneir Library, A creative and academic resource dedicated to the work and teaching of British graphic designer Jock Kinneir. URL accessed 21 May 2017Visual Arts Data Service, URL accessed 21 May 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinneir, Jock 1917 births 1994 deaths British typographers and type designers British graphic designers People from Hampshire (before 1974)