Today, we’re focusing on some of my favourite signs: traffic, a.k.a. road signs.
I love them. Because they need to communicate quickly and clearly, they’ve been reduced to the essentials - and I think that makes them beautiful.
Bold colours. Stark contrast. Great design. And free! What’s not to like?
Now one of the earliest traffic signs which you may actually have seen is the Roman milestone. This helped you figure out how far you’d traveled and how far you still had to go - helping Romans with any ‘Are we there yet’ queries.
These crazy bikes started it all - Two men ride penny-farthings in Santa Ana, California, 1886
The first modern road signs erected on a wide scale were designed for riders of high or "ordinary" bicycles in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Because these bikes, e.g. penny farthings, were rather hard to manoeuvre, cycling organisations began to erect signs that warned of potential hazards ahead (particularly steep hills).
The basic patterns of most traffic signs were set at another fun convention: the 1908 International Road Congress in Paris. Here, nine European governments agreed on the use of four pictorial symbols, indicating "bump", "curve", "intersection", and "grade-level railroad crossing".
Still, different countries have different systems - there is no universal agreement on traffic sign design. Which makes it even more fun to go sign-spotting when you’re traveling.
Today, focus your eye on all those gorgeous traffic signs designed to get you safely to your destination.
Spot them, marvel at their design (and at the hours of meetings that were needed to agree on them), capture them and share them on Twitter or Instagram, using the hashtag #kramerseye.