Studio Brief 01 - Design Process – Wayfinding

My chosen environment is Leeds Art Gallery. Although the current wayfinding system serves its purpose well, it lacks in creativity within the colour and composition. With a new design there is an opportunity to look at a variety of alternatives in presenting the current information.

The studio "Holmes Wood" the creators of the current wayfinding stated that the reasoning for the internal current design around the gallery was that it would of taken time to submit an effective external design.  The location of the gallery being so centre in the city of Leeds means that everything is quite fast paced.

These notes and sketches were initial ideas exploring shape. Rectangular shapes were explore
but the shape of a triangle seemed like a good basis for a design as its a bit more of a creative alternative to whats commonly used, there is also resemblance of an arrow shape which gives an immediate sense of direction, other development lead to partially exploring the composition of where lettering and colour would sit on the shape and remain clear.

With the idea of a triangle as a basis theres then a chance to develop that idea further within how that can be utilised for a design.

Existing wayfinding that has colour seems to have more clarity as there is a clear separation of different areas making each location seem easier to locate and accessible.

Brightly coloured wayfinding found in the Newcastle library, gives order and an overview of what the building has in a clear way with different colours.

Another system of wayfinding found in a norwegian government building (Storehagen) shows a clear and consise system to navigate around the building with colour use.  

 

The nature of the lines and colours reminds me of the London underground map designed by Harry Beck.











A selection of different ideas exploring the different potential outcomes, taking into account the ledgibility, the scale and creativity of each image before creating an effective main outcome.

There is then the consideration of appropriate colours for each image. 

(Very rough sketch)

Images

The above vector images were made as a mock up to deterin colour and look at the composition. However the appearance didn't have a very consistent and clear appearance so to change it seemed like the best option to have a better result.

Refined versions:

Cafe

Gallery

Shop

Toilet 

Baby friendly/changing

Music Libary

Information Centre

Art Library

Wayout

Navigational system: There is still the incorperation of the traingle arrows but the rounded icon seemed more balanced and better at accomidating a large image which didn't always fit with with a thin shape. Theres was also the issue of a traingle giving the impression of movement and to adjust that to look in a different direction may of obscure the image inside of it and maybe made it not hold up to a neat and consistent standard.  (This graphic was made to give a clear direction of what the navigational system would look like as an end result, with more time it would of been made more accurately) I saw this as the best format and used a numbered system for the floor numbers and each icon next to it to make it immediatly clear to an audience when observing it as a sign at an entrance. Colours: Type: Considering a type that was appropriate for the wayfinding system, Avenir seemed the best option. This design choice was based from research as the appearance of Avenir next bold has a past of being used as a corporate identity, an identity for a university which was described as  having "balance and simplicity" It also appears within a lot of online presentations for companies such as apple and on american shop signs such as "Best Buy" . With the consideration of size it remains legible from a distance and a range of formats and sizes.  Evaulation: In terms of meeting the objective of the task I feel I was able to meet the different criteria of what was asked, however I'm not completely happy with the outcome that I created. All decisions that were made were informed and chosen to be as appropriate as possible such as the type, format, shape and colour  but I feel as if they were rushed and with more time I would of made a better pallet of colours and improve the consistency of the appearance to make it more unique in its identity.  I would of liked to look at more than one location and explore some more possibilities, also with the lack of feedback I've not been able to receive and the acknowledgment of responsibility with gathering it from other students without guidance. With the development of my work I feel overall I was able to make informed decisions through research and sketching out a range of different ideas before creating any digital work, this resulted in the creation of those ideas then being able to make better decisions about the design. I also would of liked to map out my results better and create a clearer and more in depth system that illustrates what I had envisioned. Additionally I would like to better manage my time for future projects, also better understand and evaluate feedback to apply towards having better work and as a result have a more thorough body of work that I'm more satisfied of in the end.