Road-safety posters in exhibition

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32860, 8 March 1972, Page 10

Road-safety posters in exhibition

An exhibition of road safety posters from many countries, arranged by the Ministry of Transport, is being shown in the Stewart Mair gallery in the Canterbury Society of Arts building. Containing more than 200 posters, the exhibition is an absorbing display of national design characteristics, and shows that in this technological age the poster holds a high place as a way of communication. WIDE VARIETY

The styles of poster design and the messages they contain are as many and varied as the countries represented. Some posters are designed with a warning—sometimes with words, sometimes with symbols, often with both or combined with graphically descriptive photographs. The dangers of driving under the influence of drink or drugs is a recurring theme that provides material for one of the most effectively designed posters. This poster is from Finland and is one in which no words are necessary. In it the label of a bottle of beer is simply a drawing of a car on the top half and a motor-cycle on the lower half. Also from Finland and equally striking is a poster containing three eyes—the top one. yellow, the middle one yellow, the bottom one blood red and bursting, a message instantly understood. CARE FOR YOUNG

The need to protect and care for children on the roads gives rise to a dramatic photographic message from japan, a tricycle crushed under the wheel of a truck.

From Poland a rag lies poignantly beside a truck wheel and in another Polish

poster a ball bounces into a traffic-filled road, a child follows.

Some posters appeal more to the conscience than to the visual senses, some attempt humour but the underlying message is always serious. Don’t drive if you are drunk, drugged, tired or angry and when you do drive use seat belts, don’t lane jump, slow down at intersections, make sure your brakes are working to capacity, and above all take care and be alert.

If you are a pedestrian the message is equally clear. Don’t jaywalk, at night wear something reflective and use the zebra crossings.

From most countries comes the invitation to all road users to be courteous.

The display will remain on view until March 16. —G.T.M.