BW's ideogram set

Someone once told me that the Pentagram design group created the BW logo, the general black/white theme and the set of 'ideograms' that we see everywhere on the canals to denote facilities or rules. 

(By the way, is there a collection of them online?  I mean, the complete set, like the set of road signs you see in the highway code?  I'd like to know into how much detail they went.) 

I don't know what it cost to commission that coherent set, but I think a great job was done. 

In particular I never tire of seeing the gentle 'bulrush and accommodation bridge' emblem of British Waterways as a whole.  It's marvellously evocative of a rural narrow canal scene. 

If I was BW's PR department, I've have a rolling photographic competition every year for people to recreate that image in camera.  It would highlight the image in the public's mind.

However, there are oddities in the ideogram set which suggest that whoever worked on them had little idea about boating. 

The most striking faux pas is perhaps the image with which boaters are most familiar - the mooring bollard.  It shows a rope going downwards, as if the boat is below the level of the wharf. 

This suggests a ship or large river wharf, not a canalside location at all.  It's strangely at odds with bucolic scene of the main corporate image, and I wonder how it got past BW's marketing department.  Perhaps the man on the BW board who signed it off didn't do much boating himself? 

Other mistaken designs in the set include the rubbish/sanitary station 'bucket' signs, which are too similar.  After eleven years owning a boat I still confuse one for the other, and others don't understand them at all.  I mean, how many people carry their portapotti or household waste in a bucket?

There's also the curious 'boy and girl side-by-side' image which is supposed to suggest toilets but makes me think of a children's playground, or perhaps an order to stand still. 

Still, overall it's a pretty polished result.

By the way, what are the fonts used on BW signs?  I think it would be a neat idea to use them for Granny Buttons, with the sans serif for my blog title and headlines and the serif for this body copy.

Pentagram have a silly little online test you can take called What Type Are You? which purports to tell you which typeface is best for you.  It told me that 'my' type is Marina Script.  This 'engraved' style face is pretty, but unfortunately is  almost unreadable, and you wouldn't to decipher my writing in that.  

I tried again, describing myself as 'British Waterways' and answering in the way I thought BW themselves might want to answer.  "Rational, assertive, traditional and disciplined," were the four key points.  

Pentagram's bonkers psychoanalyst ended up giving the BW version of me Corbusier Stencil.  That's hardly the typeface they chose for BW, but at least its readable.  And it has the virtue of being easy to make into canalside signs - even by graffiti artists with stencils and spray paint.  

Comments

[Paul Savage (nb Adreva)]

Or, a very unfortunate, accident prone chap!!

[Mike]

The Enviromnent Agency seem to use every single ideogram possible at their moorings, even if they aren't relevant. Warning! Dangerous drop! (What, all of 12 inches?) I suppose they are covering themselves.

Also being a bit designer-geeky I like to examine the graphic. They very often reuse the image of the person in different warnings, so the poor chap falling off the dangerous drop is exactly the same graphic as the one tripping over the 'trip hazard' etc. That's designers for you.

[Paul Savage (nb Adreva)]

I know it is off topic, but Jaquelines' website suggestion was brilliant!!!, and thought provoking.

[Bruce Napier]

Hi

Quite agree about the bucket/elsan confusion; they've been using that since the 80s at least, and like you I still confuse them.

Is the mooring symbol an EU wide one?

ATB

Bruce

[Halfie]

I, too, find the rubbish/Elsan symbols confusing. What I don't like about the mooring sign is that it looks like the bollard is crossed out, in the way that a cigarette is crossed out to signify "no smoking". I always have to look for other clues to know whether or not mooring is allowed. Why not have a plain bollard - no rope - to signify mooring? Or even the word "Mooring"?

[Jaqueline Almdale]

Hello Andrew,
Thank you for the link to the online test--that was a bit of fun. The BW bridge and rushes motif is elegant in its simplicity. I love your idea of a photo competition--I hope you'll fly it by them. I'll trade you. Have you been to this site yet? I can picture the worlds deepest rubbish bin near some of the town tow paths. My favorite is the piano stairs. :) http://www.thefuntheory.com/
I hope you are feeling better,
Jaqueline
Pullman WA USA