National Highways has revealed the overhead ‘gantry of the future’. Yes, really

Road sign design; one of those odd things that you never consider until you’re lost and frustrated at the lack of any decent signposting to get you back on track. And now that GPS and camera systems are monitoring road signs themselves, they're gaining elevated status in the road furniture stakes. Having launched a competition to find the next best gantry design, National Highways has released pics of the winner's successful creation — and it's not half bad. 

The winning entry of the gantry of the future competition met the three stipulations of the competition; contextual sensitivity, clarity and environmental sustainability in the production and maintenance of the things. Useful Studio created a less carbon-heavy design that could easily scale up or down, depending on how far a gantry has to stretch. 

If you’re into clean, simple lines, the new sign design (we can say that, right?) is pretty appealing. The victorious studio coupled pre-weathered steel - not painted, to reduce maintenance requirements - with equally simple display screens. Speaking of the existing gantry designs, Duncan Smith, executive director for National Highways, said: “Existing designs tend to emphasise function over form, our challenge is to create innovative structures that can accommodate the required signage and equipment that are more sympathetic to the environment.

“In selecting Useful Studio as the winner, the judging panel admired the simplicity and elegance of the pared-back design approach, and the opportunities it presented in terms of a resource efficient, standardised, coherent suite of gantry structures that would be potentially sympathetic to a broad range of settings and contexts.”

There's over 3,500 gantries across the UK, but not all are expected to be replaced. Useful Studios will work with National Highways to realise the design into manufacture and production and the new gantries will be rolled out over the next two to three years.