Research Log: Wayfinding & Signage

What is Signage and Wayfinding?

Within my commercial based Capstone project, signage and wayfinding will have quite a big role. There are many cases where having ample signage and guiding people through a space with wayfinding is going to be incredibly important.

Signage communicates heavily through the graphic displays that have an intention of some sorts to convery information and a message to the users within a space.

Wayfinding leans more on the side of navigating users through the built environment and what that communication is like to truly understand where to go in any instance.

EGD (Environmental Graphic Design) is the multidisciplinary design discipline, where graphic design, architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, industrial design, interior design, and urban design all connect together. Environmental Graphic Design is in reference to the graphic communication functions within the built environment like placemaking and interpretation.

Types of Signage:

When talking about what types of signage there are, many actually just come up, it’s not much that we think about. especially once we are within a space more than once we have a tendency to disregard common signage we see.

Though, it is important to think about what kind of signage will be used for this project, as well as in general to make a mental note on what kind of signage might be required in future projects.

Some Signage for My Capstone, Additional Important Signage

Entrance/Exit
Restrooms
Storage
Fire Extinguisher
Break Room
Retail/Check out
Reception
Policy Signage
Safety Signage
Directory
First Aid
Phone
Equipment Signage
Stairs
Pet Relief Zones
Smoking Areas

Signage Important to Navigate a Space

Important signage seen in both larger facilities and smaller facilities that drastically help with safety and navigation is quite simple, like Exit signs, Fire Extinguishers, and Restrooms. Other signage that I have seen in facilities are Service counters/ Reception Desks, Pickup Counters, Equipment Locations (Printers/Copiers), Vending Machines, and Study Rooms/ Offices.

Components Within Signage

There is clear differences with the colors of signage, commonly seen with a black background and the graphic display being white. This helps to make the signs easy to read, with the contrast between the colors, sharp lines of the graphics, and the indentation of the graphics along with the brail. Typical signage is meant to be simple to understand, not too many images that could cause confusion, but enough to get the point across.

Below is an example of restroom signage from the old facility and the same kind of signage that will be present in the repurposed one.