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World Design Spotlight: «A-7 highway» - WDC2022
World Design Spotlight: «A-7 highway»
07 Jun 2022 /

World Design Spotlight: «A-7 highway»

It could have been quite a grey and functional commission, but designers Paco Bascuñán, Nacho Lavernia and Dani Nebot made this work an attractive and colourful tourist enticement. We are talking about the 28 road signs that they “planted” along the Mediterranean highway, and which caused a revolution in official signage to make way for a more ground-breaking design, so typical of the nineteen eighties and so typical of La Nave, the group to which all three belonged. 

“It all started after a trip to the south of France by some of the senior officials from the department of Industry, Trade and Tourism,” begins designer Dani Nebot. 

“The official committee saw that the French chateaux (castles) were signposted on the roads with images and that this was very useful to let you know what you were going to find when you arrived by following the lure of the sign. When the Valencian Government proposed to us that we should do something similar, we asked the photographer Paco Alberola to travel along the motorway all through the Valencian Community, from the Sénia to the Segura rivers, and to take photos of all the castles dispersed along that route. It was a big mistake because the well-conserved and accessible castles amounted to three along the whole route (laughter). That wasn’t much of an inducement for tourists. We needed to turn the idea around.”

La Nave was open 24 hours a day, there was always somebody working there and nocturnal activity was frequent.

La Nave was open 24 hours a day, there was always somebody working there and nocturnal activity was frequent, so, the night before they had to present the work, Bascuñán, Nebot and Lavernia put all their inventiveness into action and, under pressure, which is sometimes a good stimulus, they started to seek, analogically, information about the places they intended to feature on the signs.

Looking at the particular information for each territory, the dynamic was as follows: Lavernia looked up the towns in the encyclopaedia; Nebot scribbled a drawing, in broad outlines, that alluded to each place; and Bascuñán put the finishing touches by producing a tidy drawing of that first sketch. Afterwards, with the help of Belén Payá, who also participated in the hours prior to submission, they stuck coloured paper, by way of collage, onto that first design to give it colour. That night they did five or six. The first one was that of Benidorm.

In La Nave we had things to say but on the other side there were perceptive people, with good understanding.

The day after the sleepless night the Government representatives arrived at La Nave in calle San Vicente, and they found the collages displayed on glass shelves with lighting. “When we showed the clients the proposal, they loved the idea. They understood it immediately,” explains Nebot.

“I always say this, in La Nave we had things to say but on the other side there were perceptive people, with good understanding. And that is important. Otherwise, you can produce marvels, but if there is nobody on the other side…”.

A lot of clichés but very effective for illustrations that, almost forty years later, continue to fulfil their duty without losing a scrap of modernity.

That highway was originally named the A-17, and it was a continuation of the French Autoroute A9, forming part of the first stretch built of what is known today as the AP-7. In 1986 it was renamed the A-7 motorway. The strategy of the Valencian Administration was to take advantage of the change of name to introduce these inducements for tourists at the exits from the stretches of motorway in the region. 

Benidorm was the first sign designed and that drawing contained everything the city symbolised, explained in a graphic, synthetic language which quickly communicated to visitors what they could find. 

Sun, sand, the Roman theatre of Sagunto, the castle of Peñíscola, the prawns of Vinaroz, the dome of Altea … a lot of clichés but very effective for illustrations that, almost forty years later, continue to fulfil their duty without losing a scrap of modernity. 

 

Photography: Dani Nebot Studio.