Untangling Signs

How do we tell people where to go? Author and transport expert Mark Ovenden joins us to talk about legends of design Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir and the critical role they played in the signage we see on motorways and airports today.

You’ll find out how patterns in the tiles on the London Underground were designed to help people with low literacy head in the right direction. We also take a break in the middle to find out why Sydney leads the world in wayfinding for people who are blind and visually impaired.

Oh, and look out for a woolly mammoth and a cow named Patience.

Picture yourself, walking hastily through a hospital in a town you’ve never been to before, anxious and worried, trying to find the ward where your loved one is being treated.  

Or it’s the middle of the night, your hotel is being evacuated, you’re half asleep, and it’s only because of the green lit symbols that you know which direction to run to get to safety.  

At the centre of these critical moments in our lives are signs.

And I think we have a strangely intimate connection with them. Our minds are on much bigger, more urgent things, but it’s these signs that we are completely dependent on, even if just for a few seconds.

My guest on this episode is broadcaster Mark Ovenden, specialist in graphic design, cartography and architecture in public transport. He’s the author of some brilliant books including London Underground by Design, Transit Maps of the World, and 50 Iconic Metro Maps. He’s a mine of information on this subject.

Show notes

Find out about the City of Sydney’s wayfinding and signage for blind and visually impaired people here.

About Mark Ovenden

Mark Ovenden is an author, broadcaster and lecturer whose book sales on cartography and design are approaching a quarter of a million. His 2017 one-hour TV documentary on typefaces for BBC4 was watched by 400,000. Mark brings “joyful insight and accessibility” to what might appear as technical subjects. Mark's infectious enthusiasm “enthrals audiences” in broadcasts, podcasts or lectures. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with a social media following.

Born and brought up in London, Mark lived and worked in France and the USA. Before returning to his love of cartography in the early noughties, he worked as a presenter and producer for the BBC and commercial radio stations. As a kid, he built miniature TV studios out of Lego, set up a home radio station, collected old maps and explored abandoned train lines.  

Mark became a newsreader/presenter for Manchester’s Kiss102 in 1994; joined Radio 1 in 1998; became a music programmer for MTV in 1999; then a producer at Atlantic252. In 2000, Mark moved to Ministry Of Sound Radio, then went back to TV.

The books came next: Metro Maps of The World, London Underground by Design, Transit Maps of The World, Metrolink: The First 25 Years, a guide to London Underground architecture and Metro Maps of the World. He fronted a documentary for Radio 4 in 2018 and produced a book on Airline Maps, followed by one about Underground Cities and a guide to Paris Metro Architecture.

More programmes, lectures and books are in the pipeline.

Connect with Mark at markovenden.com

@markovenden on X

@mark_ovenden on YouTube

@markonthemaps on Instagram

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