Berthou, Benoît

The road: A graphic approach - 2018.


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Is it possible to design a road without any form of markings? It seems that the ambitions of allowing circulation and creating a route can only be fulfilled through the establishment of signage that uses lines, strips (zebra or linear), or typographies. In a way, they represent the essence of the road. We propose to approach these markings with the hypothesis that the road denies any form of drawing creativity and is never defined as a graphic object. We will first “hit the road” by way of a singular enterprise: the construction of a code that graphically establishes information and banishes any form of ambiguity. Comparing transport-specific graphic systems (rail and air), we will then ask ourselves whether or not the road defines a certain attitude toward information: to the “semantic” and “aesthetic” points of view defined by Abraham Moles, we should add a “signaling” approach.