Sign of the Times

Sign of the Times is an exhibition of designs from 100 of the world's great designers held last week at the Protein Gallery in London EC2.

Invitation hot foil blocked in two colours by Gavin Martin Colournet
on Neptune Unique 700gsm

NB:Studio, together with Spring Chicken and Michael Wolff, launched a competition to redesign the famous ‘elderly people’ road sign.

In NB's own words:
The ‘elderly people’ road sign - you probably know the one – it’s a depressing silhouette of a stooping elderly couple with a walking stick.

We feel this sign gives a derogatory and out-of-touch impression of older people that implies both frailty and disability. This has been picked up in recent months by the UK press and we feel it’s high time that the design community responded. So, we asked some of the best designers to create a new warning sign – a new icon – to make it easier for drivers to see that older adults may be crossing. And one that paints a more positive image of Britain’s older community.

 

The private view was held last Thursday evening and it was a very jolly party!

Click on images to enlarge

NB Studio received both serious and playful submissions from designers around the world. You can see all the entries here: http://www.creativecourage.co.uk/sign-of-the-times. The Huffington Post, Metro and The Daily Mail Online have covered the story. The ambition for the project is to lobby the UK’s Department for Transport into changing the sign and to raise further awareness of the issue. Amongst the many playful entries is this knitted road sign from The Partners (below)

Partner at NB:Studio, Alan Dye (below) gave the introduction and spoke eloquently about the project.

...and Michael Wolff was truly inspirational in his appeal to get designers involved and open their eyes to designing for the older generation.

The signs were supplied by Whybrow Wayfinding and they really are terrific. If you would like to own one, you can bid for it on the auction site: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/nbstudioshop with all proceeds raised going to Age UK.

...and you can also vote for your favourite here: http://www.springchicken.co.uk/signofthetimes/

Below is the book, which is printed on our StarFine, printed by Gavin Martin Colournet, which I will write about in a separate post.

It was a pleasure to be involved with the project and my thanks to everyone at NB:Studio and Gavin Martin Colournet, who put a huge amount of time and effort into making this a real success.

http://www.springchicken.co.uk/signofthetimes/
http://www.whybrow.co.uk/
www.nbstudio.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.09.2015