Transport is the typeface that was designed specifically to be the main typeface used on British road signs. In this case, Transport Heavy has been used as the road sign uses dark text on a light background. Transport has been used on British road signs since 1964, the year when all road signs in the UK were redesigned. It is a clear, bold font that can be classified as being a humanist sans serif type face. The font does its job very well as it is very clear, distinctive and friendly but is also easy to read from a distance in a moving vehicle. Together, the phrase, the type face and the colour choice give the sign a warm and friendly feeling. As stated before, it was designed specifically for road signs making it the perfect font for the job.
The hierarchy of the road sign is very simple and effective. The green ring draws the viewers eyes to the number which is the most important thing in the sign. Then the viewer reads the phrase at the bottom which is less imoportant. The difference in scale and the placement of the number at the top of the sign help communicate the hierarchy.
The main users of the sign are obviously going to be drivers of any vehicle and they need to obey the speed limit which is clearly stated in an easy to read and easy to understand manner meaning the road sign fulfils its purpose very well. The sign is so well designed that there should not be a single user that cannot understand it. The sign's message could not be clearer therefore in my opinion, no changes to the sign's design would be needed.
Knowing you were to redesign something, did you purposefully pick something that didn't need redesign? I'm not that stupid. EVERYTHING has a design opportunity...so is this shouting at you loudly enough to slow down? If this was perfect, would there be a need for speed bumps? Would there be those signs that have lit up smiley-faces and frowns? I think not. There is usually a way to design more into something. I mean, how does a person even know they mean the speed limit (assuming they've not grown up here and taken the theory test here)? I expect more. This is a cheat, Kyle....
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