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How Signature Can Assist With Campus Navigation Challenges

Arkansas Bus Graphic

Creative Solutions To Combat Chaos

Designing a wayfinding system for campuses is not easy. Medical and educational complexes are labyrinths to the uninformed new visitors, and the nature of what these places provide brings new faces to visit them on a daily basis.

An easily understood and visually appealing system of directional signs and self-help tools can be put together with just a little knowledge of traffic flow within your campus coupled with the design knowledge of our talented team at Signature.

Know Your Audience

Getting a handle on the flow of foot traffic in and around the complex you will be creating wayfinding images for is an essential first step. Survey staff, students, or any group who are the primary daily commuters in your floor plan.

Post surveys to relevant people who will have valuable input on the best ways to get from point A to point B, including trouble areas like human logjams or difficult to access areas. Handicapped advisors will provide you with unique insight on important traffic issues that might get overlooked otherwise.

Make sure that anticipated problems are addressed in your survey, and leave room for contributors to provide their thoughts on any part of the project they might be able to provide insight for. Make sure the survey is brief enough to keep the viewer’s attention and provide a free way to submit it – via a self-addressed stamped envelope or with an easily accessed online survey.

Control The Flow of Autos

Follow your cohesive, predetermined design elements to begin laying out wayfinding signs for any automobile or bicycle traffic in and around your campus. If determining color choice and other useful visual cues is not your strong point, let our design team help you make a wayfinding layout that reflects your brand well and appeals to the public, engaging them visually and showing them where to go in a clear way.

If you are incorporating any virtual wayfinding elements like a digital map that can be accessed with a smart device, you can begin to include that into your design, notifying visitors of how to access that map. Parking garages, roadways and outdoor signage can be combined in your design, and we know how to apply vinyl ads to a wide range of surfaces to suit your needs.

When addressing the needs of the disabled, applying fleet graphics to any golf carts or passenger shuttles will add to your brand appeal while also increasing visibility and bringing emphasis to your efforts to provide equal.

Direct Pedestrians Safely Into Your Campus

Continuing with your planned design elements, begin to incorporate the signs that will lead commuters into the campus from parking areas, bus stops, bike parking, or mass transit stops. Hopefully, you have decided a way to best direct traffic to the different areas of your complex.

The creative use of visual cues and colors to represent different paths is a proven method for wayfinding. Once again, make sure that there are signs on buildings or pathways that direct visitors to any online assistance you are providing them.

Make sure your buildings are mapped out clearly for your visitors. Utilize floors as a place to mark a visual pathway to many different destinations, and consider providing kiosks with a point of reference clearly marked on an area map that can be strategically placed in high traffic areas.

Consider offering an information desk that is centrally located, near the main entryway, if you have not already provided one. Elevators should be clearly marked and differentiated from one another by using predetermined visual or color cues. Providing clarity to a new visitor is of the utmost importance when creating designs that are highly recognizable, practical, and (ideally) brand-forward.

Directing Them Into The Home Stretch

If your mapping system did its job, your visitors should be close to their intended destination. Make sure to consider applying graphic elements to elevator doors, to differentiate the floor numbers and prevent confusion.

In the cases of both educational and healthcare campuses, you will have the opportunity to incorporate the floor design with its specialty department. Our relationship with 3M means that you are guaranteed to have the very best, most durable graphic for your brand.

Custom floor wraps can guide guests in the right direction, we guarantee the quality and longevity of the wayfinding graphics that you place throughout the buildings of your campus.

Request a quote from us today and begin the process of installing an effective wayfinding system into your campus.

We proudly use 3MTM graphic films and overlaminates.