Signage and wayfinding are often some of the most important touchpoints in any civic or spatial project. Landmark signs, directories, feature signs, way-finding and general environmental – these systems are so ubiquitous that they’re often overlooked while people focus on the best logos and the splashy rebrands. When done correctly, they can be eye-catching, functional and meaningful too.
Colour, materiality, scale, and form can enhance an environment while also helping people navigate it. Even clever restroom sign, a naturally patinated directory, a wayfinding element that feels native to its environment – becoming a small moment that reshapes how people experience that space.
That’s also why, when overall civic design fails, you tend to feel it in wayfinding first. Signage that’s functional, but feels generic, interchangeable from one place to the next. It does the bare minimum: which way to turn, where a stadium is, how to find the exit. It’s the same type of approach you might see in outdoor walking malls, places that are supposed to act as centres for community but often use design as a way to just ‘check a box’.
Mall-ification
We’ve started to call this phenomenon ‘mall-ification’. It’s civic branding and design that’s not risky. It’s not contextual. It’s barely even specific. And you feel that immediately when you’re in these spaces. Everything works, technically. And it can be efficient. But if your designs in Ohio look like your designs in Texas, which look like your designs in Los Angeles, then you’re not designing in any way that will create permanent connection. It’ll be ready to tear down as soon as the wind changes.
Contextual design
Thankfully, some cities are charting a new way forward. Nicolas Vrignaud’s signage designs for Docks en Seine in Paris help transform a 1907 concrete warehouse into something cohesive and intentional, turning the industrial to an inviting and humanist experience. Bruce Mau’s Toronto Carpet Factory work brings a hand-hewn and utilitarian nature to their designs that really fit the history of the site. And in our own home in Denver, projects like Denver Design District’s new identity system (above) act as a navigational tool and a statement, marking the district as a distinct and creative environment…