Storehagen

From designboom: "after a competition by invitation, ralston & bau was chosen to design the signage of the building.the selected signage design is using the simplicity and clarity of the underground signage systems
used in london, paris or new york. the idea was influenced by the fact that storehagen atrium will be an important hub in førde, a city with the desire to become a metropolis.

characteristic subway lines are used all through the signage system with strong colors and graphical shapes dedicated to each floor and institution. designed following the principles of universal design they should make it easy for any user, like persons with visual impairment, to find their way.

the project included designing the exterior and interior signs, from directions in the public areas to the name labeling on each office door. each of the 200 doors in the building has a unique design pattern."

Wallpaper

From designers Mike and Maaike: "Wayfinder is a series of wallpaper designed to serve a functional purpose within the context of architecture. Wallpaper is typically decorative. Symbols are typically functional. The combination of the two creates new possibilities for architects, interior designers and space planners."

More than signs

Christopher Pullman, vp of Branding and Visual Communications for WGBH until 2008, likens wayfinding to the home page of a website: "you scan the space to figure out where you are and find clues that will lead you where you want to go." Pullman points to the increasing use of the term interface design as a measure of the design world's awareness of the need to better understand end users and what they need to do in the environment.
The iPhone touchscreen represents an example of intuitive interface design. Two-year-olds  with developing fine motor skills easily expand, shrink or swipe images with their fingertips. Wayfinding design strives for a similar measure of success, using lighting, color, imagery, spatial organization and other cues. Text signage is just one arrow in the quiver. We have seen the increasing success of computer interface design as it has evolved from the keyboard to the mouse to the touchscreen, and should aspire to similar ease of use in our built environments, using but not over-relying on text. When we introduce signage, it should be easy to read, understandable and fresh.
Print media provides another model. Pullman suggests we examine a magazine to uncover how "subtle grids and other other underlying structures support the content." Imagine these grids and structures as the architectural support for easy navigation in an interior or landscape. Signs and graphics can then be conceived of as an organic extension of this framework.
Given a spatial organization, how can we optimize the logic of its circulation? What systems of communication can we introduce that build on this logic? Answering these questions, and then making effort to present information clearly and without distracting noise, are the starting points for a successful wayfinding system.        

Wayfinding: Resources

Arthur, Paul, and Romedi Passini. Wayfinding: People, Signs, and Architecture. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992.

Calori, Chris. Signage and Wayfinding Design: A Complete Guide to Creating Environmental Graphic Design Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2007.

Follis, John and David Hammer. Architectural Signing and Graphics. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1979.

Gibson, David. The Wayfinding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009.

Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960.

Tufte, Edward. Beautiful Evidence. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 2006.

Environmental Graphic Design

David Gibson, author of The Wayfinding Handbook, cites two seminal books: Kevin Lynch's Image of the City, and Paul Arthur and Romedi Passini's Wayfinding: People, Signs, and Architecture. The terms wayfinding and signage were coined by these authors. The Society for Environmental Graphic Design is the professional organization dedicated to advancing ideas in the field. Environmental graphic design has become the key term for communications intended for spatial application, ranging from sign programs to branded environments. Interior designers, architects, landscape architects, graphic designers and product designers represent professions whose interests merge in the practice of environmental graphic design.