While it’s a modest display, wrapping around the atrium of the building at first floor level, the exhibition is an enjoyable insight into a designer who according to curator Rachel Hajek, has been responsible for much of Britain’s graphic identity. She richly deserves her own show, Margaret Calvert: Woman at Work, which has just opened at the Design Museum. Now in her 80s, she’s still going strong, designing the new Rail Alphabet 2 typeface for National Rail, again with Kubel.

Ever looked up anything on the government website recently, perhaps to check the latest Covid restrictions? That’s her typeface too (designed with Henrik Kubel, also designer of the RIBA Journal typefaces). Not to mention many of the nation’s rail, airport, ferry and hospital signs of the last half century.

Directional road signs all over the land are designed by her (with Jock Kinneir), as well as all those memorable road sign pictograms such as the ones for road works and children crossing. The graphic designer Margaret Calvert is not a household name, yet we all know her work without realising it.

New rail alphabet font free