Moving on up…

March 10, 2010 at 10:56 am
Filed under Branding, Dynamic Environments, Signage, Wayfinding

© Albert Vecerka/Esto

Time moves fast in the newsrooms and offices of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and the media conglomerate’s new headquarters in midtown Manhattan needed to keep up the pace. Two years after it purchased Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, News Corp. moved out of its World Financial Center headquarters and into new midtown Manhattan offices at 1211 Avenue of the Americas.  Studios Architecture designed the 300,000-sq.-ft. space on five floors to consolidate News Corp.’s online, print, and wire services groups and integrate the latest technology.

Design360 Inc. developed a comprehensive wayfinding and signage system featuring digital media walls, signage, and branded graphics for the public spaces. The challenge, says Design360 Creative Director Jill Ayers, was to “maintain a consistent brand feeling across several types of components, from signage and static displays to digital media.”

To help create a dynamic communications-driven environment, the main corridor on each floor functions as a central gathering point, with links to cafes, socializing areas, and circulation. To unite the floors and serve as a dynamic, content-driven backdrop to the main staircase, two multi-story walls of 20mm LED panels feature ongoing direct feeds from the company’s website, stock ticker in Times Square, imagery from The Wall Street Journal magazine, weather, and current headlines.

© Albert Vecerka/Esto

Other digital elements in the space include graphic templates for digital time clocks and layouts for the editorial group’s Newswires Wall.

Jeffrey Kilmer

The system typeface, Helvetica Neue, was inspired by the Dow Jones logo. Materials and fabrication processes juxtapose references to traditional printing processes with nods to technology.  All workstation, room, and base building signage uses Richlite, a sustainable paper product, and ADA zinc panels emulate inked-magnesium printing plates. Dye-sublimated archival photography from the newsroom’s early days serve as glass screens in the central coffee bar areas. Directional signage and illuminated identification at the main reception areas were produced from custom blued steel with push-through acrylic letters. And as a break from the buzz of the newsroom, the project team collaborated on quiet hallways that showcase Pulitzers and other distinguished awards given to The Wall Street Journal and artwork from each of Barron’s weekly covers.  –P.M.K.

© Albert Vecerka/Esto

Learning from “Learning From Las Vegas”

March 9, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Filed under Designers, Placemaking, Signage, Urban Planning

“From October 29, 2009 to Feb 5, 2010, Yale School of Architecture Gallery held What We Learned, an exhibition that features the teaching, research, and design work of Venturi and Scott Brown. The exhibition was made up of two independently organized shows.” — A.M.

Slate on the Exit Wars

March 9, 2010 at 9:55 am
Filed under Signage, Wayfinding

U.S. exit sign...

In the United States, exits are marked with bold red letters spelling out the word E-X-I-T. But in much of the rest of the world, exit signs are dramatically different. Most countries have adopted a version of the ISO’s Yukio Ota-designed “running man” exit sign, which its proponents claim is more effective because a) it’s a pictorgram that doesn’t require reading and b) it’s green (for go, Go, GO!).

Read more in “The Big Red Word vs. the Little Green Man,” by Slate Deputy Editor Julia Turner. –P.M.K.

...vs. the rest of the world

Logorama honored by Oscar

March 8, 2010 at 10:31 am
Filed under Documentary, Graphic Design, Humor, Signage

This short film features about 2500 corporate logos twining throughout several plot lines.  Last night it won the Academy Award for Short Film (Animated).  

Said the winner, “Good evening. It doesn’t look like, but it’s a French film. Sorry about the accent. I’m the producer of the film, so I have to thank the 3,000 non-official sponsors that appear in the film. And I have to assure them that no logos were harmed in the making of the project.” — A.M.

Trees for Toronto

March 8, 2010 at 10:25 am
Filed under Green Related, Signage

Toronto’s Queens Park is a green oasis in the urban core, home to almost 50 species of trees—from mature red and white oaks to butternuts, Norway maples, lindens, and pines. To help preserve and renew the forest, and to promote stewardship of the park, Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation partnered with good neighbor Royal Ontario Museum on the Trees for Toronto project.

ROM donated $100,000 to plant trees and create interpretive elements that help foster appreciation for the forest. The signs, fabricated by Acumen Visual Group, detail the natural and cultural history of the park, identify tree species, and generally help to remind residents and visitors that the park is a jewel to be treasured.  –P.M.K.

“The Secret Language of Signs”

March 2, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Filed under Signage, Wayfinding

Amtrak concourse, Penn Station (Slate)

Like it or not, signs seem to be one of the things in life that people don’t notice unless they’re bad. In a series launched this week, Slate calls signage “the most useful thing you pay no attention to,” and delves deep into the reasons why good signage and wayfinding design are so important in today’s complex built environment.

Slate Deputy Editor Julia Turner writes about the advent of SEGD and interviewed SEGD CEO Leslie Gallery Dilworth and Director of Education Craig Berger extensively for the series. Dilworth makes a cameo appearance in the series introduction.  “Lost in Penn Station” features interviews with David Gibson and Lance Wyman. And next up in the series: a sneak peek at the Legible London sign program.  –P.M.K.

Television on a stick?

March 2, 2010 at 11:50 am
Filed under Digital design, Signage, Technology

Photo: Fabrizio Constantini, The New York Times

They’ve also been called “weapons of mass distraction,” and many states are beginning to consider restrictions against digital billboards. In Michigan last week, the state legislature held hearings on a two-year moratorium on construction of digital billboards, and Minnesota will soon examine similar legislation. Private groups contend the billboards are major safety hazards, distracting drivers’ attention with their bright lights and moving images.

Interested parties are anxiously awaiting the results of an ongoing Federal Highway Administration study that will be complete this summer. A 2007 study by Virginia Tech concluded the billboards don’t change drivers’ behavior, but many consider its results suspect because the study was funded by the billboard industry.

While only 2,000 of 45,000 billboards in the U.S. are currently digital, the billboard industry sees it as a major growth sector. In years to come, they project digital signs will make up as high as 15% or their total inventory.  –P.M.K.

Kinder caring

February 24, 2010 at 8:40 am
Filed under Healthcare, Signage, Wayfinding

Amsterdam’s Emma Children’s Hospital is undergoing a major renovation to improve services and facilities for its young patients, from infants to adolescents. OPERA Amsterdam is tasked with interiors for the spaces, and the first newly renovated unit, Infants Care and Staff, opened last month.

Working with design architects OD205, OPERA conceived three layers of space representing different levels of intimacy: the most private area, around the patients; the immediate surroundings; and the space representing the patients’ relation to the outside world. The “parade,” or main corridor through the unit, is key to the design, acting like a high street in a small town. A bright but sophisticated color scheme leads patients and visitors to their destinations, with clear wayfinding signage on wall-mounted signs and on the floors. Commissioned work by international artists adds texture and whimsy and helps avoid an institutional feeling. –P.M.K.

Photos: Mike Bink

Best sign ever

February 19, 2010 at 10:26 am
Filed under Humor, Signage

SEGDster Margot Jacqz came across this sign, hopefully not just after staring into the laser. — A.M.

Sign Language

February 18, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Filed under Misc., Signage

Your devoted blogger admits that she came to this video because of the reference to signs.  But she stayed for the poignant ending.  It’s one of the entries in the Workplace Short Film Competition.  The rules: “Make a short film, no more than three minutes long, under the heading ‘workplace’. It’s that simple.” — A.M.