Calvert design & things that caught my eye this week

1 minutes estimated reading time

Margaret Calvert at the Design Museum: signs in tune with their times | Financial Times – Calvert was responsible for signage across all aspect of UK life. Her work also influenced traffic signs across the former British Empire including

  • Hong Kong
  • Mauritius
  • Pakistan
  • Singapore
  • United Arab Emirates

It has taken decades for Margaret Calvert to get the full recognition that she deserved. Calvert defined the design language of the UK I have lived in. It created a system and common sense in modern life. It is quite shocking that sexism held back recognition of Calvert’s full role in it.

Hong Kong protestors built small brick arches to slow down police vehicles. At the time I didn’t understand why; but the Design Museum has explained it – Brick arches – Design Museum More on design here.

Growing up in the 1980s the immortal letters DX7 seemed to be in every music performance. It’s sound is iconic.

Jalopnik partners with an automotive engineer to try and work out how the Changli electric vehicle is made for a ludicrously low price. The design process is fascinating. Don’t let the toy town aesthetics of the vehicle fool you. A lot of thought has done into the vehicle. In particular there were some really interesting engineering hacks in the product design that other automotive designers could learn from. Despite all the talk about China automating and using robotics on the shop floor, the vehicle has got a fair bit of manual work in the manufacturing process.

Record marketplace Discogs celebrates 20 years online here: Discogs 20th Anniversary: Thank You for 20 Years! Discogs has completely shaken up and democratised record collecting. Knowledge that used to be hard earned is now a couple of clicks away as Discogs is part eBay and part Wikipedia.