Lines on the road

Great design is often invisible – ideally, we never even notice it. Consequently, we rarely think about many of the designed things we encounter every day.

Consider the road system. Street lights, stop signs, and the ubiquitous yellow lines fade into the background of our consciousness while we drive, yet they prevent innumerable accidents and create order out of chaos. By leveraging our mutual desire to survive, the road system ensures people and goods are moved efficiently across an entire country.

Somebody designed that. Some brilliant mind long ago – or perhaps a group of them – considered a problem and developed a solution that hundreds of millions of people use every day. We never think about it, and we never think about them.

And that’s exactly how it was intended.