Today, many facilities and institutions employ way-finding systems to help direct pedestrians and auto traffic. This type of signage provides an opportunity to emphasize a brand identity, if desired. Way-finding signs range from simple to automated and complex.
About Way-finding Systems
Unlike simple address signage, Way-finding systems proactively assist people in locating specific sites or services. This type of signage enables a large organization to use symbols, colors, or other identifying elements to help direct visitors through a campus, a zoo, a museum, a mall, a neighborhood, a city, a base, a transportation hub, a manufacturing facility, or other geographic setting. Way-finding systems usually help visitors track their progress in reaching a destination. This signage may occur both outdoors and indoors.
In many cases, designers employ way-finding signs to help reinforce branding. They also seek to ensure complete accessibility for everyone (including people with disabilities). The excellent Pedestrian Wayfinding Kiosk Project undertaken by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania illustrates the broadly based community effort sometimes invested in creating attractive, useful way-finding municipal signage today.
Using Way-finding to Promote Branding
.Sometimes designers of way-finding systems choose to utilize logos or specific signage color combinations in order to emphasize branding goals. For example, the logo of a university might appear in every single way-finding sign on a large campus. By repeating the logo, the sign sponsor reinforces this image.
Developing useful, attractive way-finding signage often plays an important role in creating welcoming settings for visitors. By enabling people to find unfamiliar locations with ease, a way-finding system seeks to assist navigation. This effort may ultimately enhance the goodwill visitors feel towards the sponsoring organization. In this respect, way-finding functions as a vital brand marketing tool in some situations.
Variable Technologies
While way-finding signs do seek to furnish accessible information, they vary widely in terms of their complexity. For example, today digital signage frequently serves a way-finding purpose. Changing messages displayed on computerized road overpass screens by some state transit authorities demonstrates the potential flexibility of way-finding monitoring systems. A highway department may use these displays to notify travelers about temporary detours and road closures. Detailed online maps describing roadway conditions often serve as useful online adjuncts to a state’s way-finding signage system.
Yet numerous way-finding signage today still employs comparatively simple signage technologies. Posted plastic or metal signs, often with braille components, assist people in finding a way to rooms within a large building or to facilities on a sprawling campus. Way-finding systems sometimes employ a variety of different signs!
Obtain Way-finding Signage Services
Individuals and enterprises seeking assistance creating or implementing way-finding systems appreciate James River Signs. Conveniently located at 724 City Center Boulevard in Newport News, Virginia, we offer comprehensive sign making and sign installation services. We also assist clients across the Hampton Roads area. Contact us by dialing 757-598-4036 to schedule an appointment.
