A KEIGHLEY-born designer is proving that he's streets ahead in the creativity stakes.

Jimmy Smith, of Smiths Workshop, produced the designs for a new-style street sign being trialled in the district.

His Leeds-based studio worked in collaboration with Bradford Council’s in-house sign shop team to bring the vision to reality.

The council is currently piloting the signs, which feature Bradford's civic crest, on several streets across the district. Outside of the city centre, the signs will simply display the street name, postcode and council crest, with only signs inside the city centre boundary including the ‘City of Bradford’ moniker.

And if successful, the scheme will be extended.

"The signs have been designed to celebrate the district’s heritage and promote its unique identity as we prepare to be UK City of Culture in 2025," said a council spokesperson.

"The design also aligns with recommendations from a Local Government Association peer review in 2017, which highlighted the use of the crest as a good way of encouraging civic pride.

"In addition to helping to prepare the Bradford district for UK City of Culture, it is hoped that many of the signs will be in place for 2024, which marks 50 years of Bradford Council as a local authority.

"Eagle-eyed Bradford City football fans who spotted some of our test sites in Midland Road and North Parade praised the 'classy' new design, with dozens taking to social media to share their support.

"We have a statutory responsibility for street signs across the district and manufacture hundreds of new or replacement signs every year. If adopted, the new design will be used on signs that need routinely replacing or at new sites."

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, the council's executive member for regeneration, planning and transport, said: "We are always looking for ways to share our deep pride for the Bradford district and its distinctive and diverse neighbourhoods, and introducing these new street signs is a relatively quick and easy way to do this.

"Bradford hasn’t had a consistent street sign design for many years, so it seemed like a great opportunity to help promote our fantastic heritage as we prepare to be UK City of Culture 2025.

"I’m delighted at the support for the new design, and we’ll have a look at some of the feedback from our test sites before we seek to roll it out. We’re also in discussions with a third party about a one-off project to replace our city centre street sign plates with a more sympathetic heritage style at the same time as our ambitious Transforming Cities and other regeneration works."