Garage Identification Sign : for Fina Petroleum Products Ltd. : advert by : Gowshall Limited : in : Design, Number 89 : May 1956 : the Council for Industrial Design : London : 1956

            A few months before this, the May 1956 issue of Design magazine, the publisher, the CoID, had singled out this Fina Petrol Station sign for merit and praise; I suspect they were horrified that the manufacturer chose to advertise the product with badly mounted ancilliary sign on it as seen here! One lesson of post deisgn, as learnt by London's transport in the 1920s with bus stops, is that 'good' design attempts to anticipate what else the product may else be expected to carry; this AA Garage sign does, thanks to the bracket, somewhat detract from the clean lines of the simple, tubular steel post.

Gowshall Limited are in many ways best recalled as manufacturers of road traffic signs, especially in the 'pre-Worboys era, but the subsidiary of the Birmingham based engineering group Tube Investments, also made other signs and items of road furniture that often involved the manipulation or use of tubes made elsewhere in the TI empire. Fina was the British brand name for the Belgian oil and fuels company Petrofina. Their symbol, seen here, is illuminated by a pair of Gowshall's 'Signlites' that were also, primarily, used to illuminate traffic signs were required.

Taken on: March 25, 2025

Tags:

Mike Ashworth Collection

Design

Design Magazine Number 89

The Council for Industrial Design

London

1956

Design May 1956

garage sign

garage identifcation sign

symbol

Petrofina

Fina Petroleum Products Ltd.

petrol station

garage

AA Garage sign

graphic design

Gowshall Limited

Oldbury

Birmingham

TI Group

Tube Investments « less

Sets appears in: • Design No. 89 : May 1956 • Design magazine and the Council for Industrial Design more » • Gowshall road signs and street furniture • Some old advertising « less

Groups appears in: • Vintage Advertising • That Old Timey Feeling more » • Golden Age of Advertising: 1950s - 1970s • Advertising through the years • 1950s Britain (Original '50s images only) • Period (pre 2000) British petrol station pictures • PLANET EARTH BACK IN THE DAY « less

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