Paul Arthur is one of the most influential Canadian designers of all time. He invented the word “signage” in the 1960’s. He work was most well-known in terms of environmental design, hence “signage”. He wanted people to find their way in a way that was well-designed, not by just hanging signs wherever they fit.
One of his first major jobs was as a designer for Expo 67, where he worked on the way finding (another term coined by Arthur) and environmental design. Paul Arthur thought nonverbal communication was the most important kind and designed a lot of iconography, which was significant. That way all of the signage could be understood by the global audience of the Expo.
While he never had any formal design education, he was very successful. He was one of the founding members of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD). He was also involved in other committees and societies in the Canadian design world; he had fingers in a lot of pies, making him one of the most prolific Canadian graphic designers.
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Good one!