Born in Hampshire in 1917, Jock Kinneir was a well-renowned typographer and graphic designer, best known for his work with Margaret Calvert in designing the British road and motorway signs. Kinneir and Calvert worked together for ten years (1957 to 1967) on this ambitious project, each of them creating bright and simple signs that were still carefully organised with interesting details including the Rail Alphabet font and the memorable shapes and symbols.
Jock Kinneir also designed signs for Gatwick Airport from the late 50s to 1965, finding black letters on a yellow background to be the most graphically effective, and created the font type Transport. He went on to design signing systems for national hospitals and the Airports Authority, and was Head of the Department of Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art in London for five years.
As a designer, I've always liked Kinneir's use of sharp colour contrast and distinctive spacing, and often try to incorporate similar elements into my own work. Even after his death in August 1994, Jock Kinneir's impact in design is still recognisable to this day and relates to my approach as a designer to create simple yet distinctive pieces of graphic work.
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