diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c1f7d3f69..70ec91400 100755
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ uninstall:
 	@$(PYTHON) scons/scons.py -j$(JOBS) --config=cache --implicit-cache --max-drift=1 uninstall
 
 test:
-	./run_tests
+	@./test/run
 
 check: test
 
diff --git a/run_tests b/test/run
similarity index 60%
rename from run_tests
rename to test/run
index 4520bd63c..a7606a761 100755
--- a/run_tests
+++ b/test/run
@@ -2,8 +2,15 @@
 
 failures=0
 
+cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )"
+cd ../
 source ./localize.sh
 
+function run_step    { >&2 echo -e "\033[1m\033[34m* $1\033[0m"; }
+function run_substep { >&2 echo -e "\033[1m\033[36m* $1\033[0m"; }
+function run_success { >&2 echo -e "\033[1m\033[32m* $1\033[0m"; }
+
+run_step "Starting Mapnik tests"
 # mapnik-settings.env is an optional file to store
 # environment variables that should be used before
 # running tests like PROJ_LIB, GDAL_DATA, and ICU_DATA
@@ -11,12 +18,15 @@ source ./localize.sh
 # building against binary versions of dependencies like
 # done via bootstrap.sh
 if [[ -f mapnik-settings.env ]]; then
+    run_substep "Inheriting from mapnik-settings.env"
     source mapnik-settings.env
 fi
 
+run_substep "Running C++ Unit tests..."
 ./test/unit/run 
 failures=$((failures+$?))
 
+run_substep "Running standalone C++ tests..."
 if [ -n "$(find test/standalone/ -maxdepth 1 -name '*-bin' -print -quit)" ]; then
     for FILE in test/standalone/*-bin; do 
         ${FILE};