Architectural Signage Survey Results

What We Learned From Our Survey

Earlier this year, we conducted a survey of architectural sign companies as part of an ongoing effort to compile information about the workings of our industry. Our survey focused on the process by which architects design and specify sign programs. Before we share the results, I think it would be helpful to layout some background information.

Everyone in the industry is familiar with sign programs that are designed by EGD firms and architectural signage specialists. While you may quibble with the design of a given program, these sign programs are normally well documented, and they almost always are the result of a serious design effort. We put these projects into Bucket 1.

Those of us who work for architectural sign companies are also familiar with a very different kind of sign program: one which is specified by an architect and incorporated into the general construction documents of a building project, but one which lacks the basic information that is necessary for pricing and fabrication. Sign drawings, message schedules, and location plans are all missing, and the only available information is typically found in a vague and confusing section 10-14-00 specification. This kind of sign program is not the result of a serious design process, and we put jobs of this type into Bucket 2.

The primary purpose of our survey was to try and figure out how often architectural sign companies encounter projects that belong in Bucket 2, and to understand how they handle them.

Here is a quick summary of the survey results:

• There were a total of 140 respondents.
• There were 109 respondents who do mostly architectural work, interact with architects, prepare bids, and receive deficient specs.
• Of these, 55% receive deficient specs more than 50% of the time. 12% reported that they received deficient specs on almost every project that they bid.
• 86% reported that for the poor specs, that the sign company was responsible for untangling the signage requirements and extracting the necessary information for fabrication and installation.
• The biggest negative consequence of the poor signage specifications is that comparing bids was made very difficult.

The survey questions and results can be seen in detail here.

Why Is This Important?

We found an overwhelming number (96%) of architectural sign companies have had experience with sign specifications that are vague, contradictory, or incomplete. We have also discovered this is not an isolated or unusual event: 57% of the survey respondents say that they encounter this type of documentation on more than 50% of the projects they try to bid.

More Thoughts about Signs and Design-Build

We have spent considerable time over the last several months investigating how architectural sign programs are designed and implemented, and it has become increasingly clear that the Design-Build model has a significant role to play in this process. That part of the big picture is in pretty sharp focus, but it’s so easy to get caught up in the nitty-gritty details, you can lose track of exactly why this is a good thing for architectural sign companies. Here are the 3 most important reasons we think you ought to be excited about Design-Build, and why it should be in the mix as you plan for the future.

Conversion rates. I'm not talking about dollars to euros here. I am talking about the number of proposals that are converted into real revenue generating projects. For our small firm in the Boston area, we have converted more than 70% of the Design-Build proposals we submitted over the last 2 years into actual jobs. This compares with a success rate of less than 20% on traditional "Design-Bid-Build" projects that we have pursued. It is true that writing a successful proposal is time-consuming, but the return is nothing short of remarkable. I will go out on a limb here and predict that this model will be adopted by more and more architectural signage companies, and I would not be at all surprised to see EGD firms sticking their toes into the water as well.

Design-Build Article

Last month, Travis delivered a seminar about the design-build process at the ISA International Sign Expo. His article based on that seminar appears in the current issue of "Sign Media Canada".

» Click here to read the article.

Identia Online & Project Information Management

Project Information Management (PIM) is critical for the successful delivery of architectural sign projects, and there is a lot of project information to manage: sign message schedules, sign location plans, sign type specifications, construction documents, conceptual drawings, client communications, etc.

The biggest problems with architectural sign projects generally tend to be with product quality and information management. While much attention is paid by sign companies towards addressing the product quality issues, too often PIM is not given the attention it merits. Part of the reason for this is that until now any solution to the PIM problem has been unavailable or too costly. Identia Online is the first purpose-built cost-effective PIM tool for architectural sign projects.

In order to grow your company effectively, correct and efficient PIM will be more important than ever. You cannot afford to have projects slowed or derailed by the inability to manage the important details of each sign. A robust, easy to use, and globally accessible information platform will be necessary in order to accomplish your business growth goals.

Blogs, News, and Other Links: February 2010

Children's Hospital in Poland

Portfolio of signage, wayfinding, and graphics for a Polish children's hospital [Kasia Kaczmarek]

Healthcare Wayfinding

Thoughts on healthcare wayfinding [GNU Group]

The Value of Glocalization

Thinking locally and nationally when in comes to wayfinding and signage [Corbin Design]

Setting Sights on the Arrow

Article about that most basic but important symbol: the arrow [AIGA]

Changing Landscape of EGD Education

EGD education at universities [Arrows & Icons]

Cisco Simplifies Digital Signage

Cisco offers their Digital Media Creative Services [CNN Money]

Signage at new Red Sox training facility

A look at the signs at the Red Sox new spring training facility in Florida [signweb.com]

Lousy Signage in Well-Designed Buildings

Our company in the Boston area, like architectural signage firms everywhere, routinely receives bid requests from general contractors for the "signage" subcontract portion of construction projects. Unfortunately, we usually encounter documentation that is so seriously flawed we are unable to prepare an accurate bid.

Here are just a few of the problems we have seen:

1. The signage documentation package normally includes a written spec, but almost never includes drawings, a sign message schedule, or sign location plans.
2. The sign contractor is required to submit construction shop drawings for signage, but is given little information about critical variables such as overall size, typestyle, or graphic layout. In other words, design responsibility for the signage elements is assigned to the signage contractor.

Environmental Graphics and Design Excellence

The coveted Harleston Parker Medal was established in 1921, and is awarded annually to recognize "such architects as shall have, in the opinion of the Boston Society of Architects. . . completed the erection for any private citizen, association, corporation, or public authority, the most beautiful piece of architecture, building, monument or structure within the limits of the City of Boston or of the Metropolitan Parks District".

A nine member jury empanelled by the BSA has recently issued its report and recommended that the Harleston Parker for 2009 be awarded to the Parker Community Boathouse designed by Anmahian Winton Architects. The entire report of the BSA jury may be seen here.

In the words of the report: "The boathouse stood out amongst the nominations this year in its ability to embody many of the different notions of beauty that had been advanced. The building is a striking presence on the water. Its rich wood panels and articulated facade draw attention to the structure, yet it remains elegant and simple."

Our firm made a small contribution to the boathouse by implementing an architectural signage program for the project. The program consisted of several sets of stainless steel lettering, some donor recognition signs, and a small number of Identia Sign System plaque signs to identify functional spaces within the building.

The design of the signage was handled in a collaborative manner by the architect, the owner, and our office. We believe the design character of the signage is instructive: it is restrained, well detailed, and simple. It is also consistent with a design orientation that endorses the idea that signage is a functional background product that should be subordinated to architectural priorities, and which ought to complement architectural features, rather than compete with them.

This point of view does not imply that signage should be overlooked. It only suggests that signage should take its appropriate place within the entire building system and perform its task effectively, and without excessive fanfare.

Blogs, News, and Other Links: December 2009

Sign09 Vienna Seminars

A summary of one day's worth of seminars at Sign09 in Vienna. [designworkplan]

Patient Room Information

Study of patient room information signs [Corbin Design]

New Signs At Parkinson's Center

New signs at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center in Phoenix [DD&F]

Wayfinding Project at Ski Resort

Wayfinding project for ski resort in Australia [ID/Lab]

Branded Environments

Article on branded environments and identities [Arrows & Icons]

New Techniques for Autodesk's Headquarters

Article on how Autodesk's new building utilized BIM and IPD techniques [HQ Construction]

Blogs, News, and Other Links: November 2009

Green Signs and Platinum Status

Identia Online subscribers Archetype Signmakers responsible for green signage at new college campus building that contributes towards LEED Platinum accreditation. [SignWeb]

New Airport Identity

Identia Online subscribers Indigo Signworks create main identification sign for Hector International Airport in Fargo, ND. [Sign Builder Illustrated>]

New Signs for Cooper Union

New signs designed by Pentagram at Cooper Union in NYC. [Pentagram]

Designing Intelligent Navigation Systems

Wayfinding design article [Sign Builder Illustrated]

EGD and LEED

Article examines how EGD can contribute to LEED certification. [Arrows & Icons]

LSU's New Wayfinding System

Louisiana Statue University works on new wayfinding system. [lsu.edu]

Signs Point to More Business for GNU

Profile of EGD firm, GNU Group. [San Francisco Business Times]

Using Identia Online: Take-offs

Identia Online is a great tool to help with take-offs and estimating. Instead of using paper plans and a highlighter, create a project in Identia Online, load the location plans, and start placing markers!

Use the "Add Marker" button to place markers on the plans. Create one or more sign types to organize the markers. If you wish, add sign messages based on information from the plan. When you are finished, print out the sign schedule PDF and use the summary page to get a count for each sign type. Later, you can flesh out the details of the sign schedule, or export the data as an Excel file.

Blogs, News, and Other Links: October 2009

EGD and the ADA

Interview with several EGD firms about designing within ADA regulations. [Communication Arts]

Innovative Signage at Boston Food Bank

Optical illusion greats drivers on side of new Greater Boston Food Bank building. [Boston Globe]

AIGA Symbols

A collection of sign symbols in the latest issue of Arrows & Icons. Also in this issue: an article about New Jersey's statewide wayfinding program. [Arrows & Icons]

Wayfinding Starts in the Parking Garage

Signage is often overlooked in hospital parking garages. [Healthcare Design]

Using iPhones for City Navigation

Will iPhone apps change the future of city wayfinding?.[designworkplan]

Gas Pumps and Wayfinding

Compares wayfinding to the process of filling up.[Corbin Design]

Tampa Riverwalk Solor Signs Case Study

Solar powered wayfinding signs in Tampa. [The Green Resource Guide]

The Cost of Healthcare: EGD Edition

How responsible EGD can help reduce costs for health care facilities. [FocusEGD]

5 Sign Schedule Pitfalls to Avoid

Sign projects rarely fail because of poor type kerning, but I know from hard experience that they routinely self-destruct as a result of poor documentation and ineffective communication. At the heart of an effective signage documentation package is the Sign Message Schedule. Here are 5 pitfalls to avoid when compiling your sign schedule.

1. Too much or too little data. You want to be like Goldilocks here and get it "just right". Some sign schedules don’t contain enough information to be useful, while others contain far too much. The sign schedule is part of a package of information that also includes sign location plans, sign type specifications, and drawings. Use the various components of the package to your benefit.

Unique sign type identifiers can act as a reference between sign specifications and the sign schedule, and unique sign numbers link between the sign schedule and the sign location plan. In this way all the pieces of documentation work together, and you can avoid cramming sign type specifications onto the sign schedule, or displaying the entire sign message on your location plan. Too much data on any given piece of the documentation generally results in confusion, not clarity.

Conversely, too little information in your sign schedule does a disservice to the fabricator, installer, and most importantly, the client. At a minimum, an effective sign schedule should contain:

• Sign Number: differentiates individual signs and can be used to identify specific installation locations.
• Sign Type designation: references the constructions specifications for each individual sign.
• Quantity: defines the quantity for identical signs.
• Sign Message section: contains the actual text, and other graphic content that is to appear on each individual sign.
• Notes section: provides special instructions or information that pertains to an individual sign.

Sign message schedules for complex and large projects can also incorporate additional types of information such as level designations, building names, or project phase indicators. This additional data can be helpful in managing large sign message schedules.

2. Inaccurate data. This is pretty obvious, but if you want accurately fabricated signs, you need an accurate sign schedule. Reminds me of a conversation that I had with a sign buyer and a sign product manufacturer about the importance of accurate sign schedules. The sign buyer said, "What’s the big deal? You know what we want. So what if not every ‘i’ is dotted and not every ‘t’ is crossed?". The sign product manufacturer responded, "That’s fine, as long as you don’t mind if the signs we fabricate are missing some dotted i’s and crossed t’s."

The point is that ultimately the quality of your sign schedule has a direct effect on the quality of the fabricated product. Leaving it up to the fabricator to figure things out will lead to errors, changes, and lost time and money. Save everyone headaches and provide an accurate sign schedule.

3. Inconsistency. This is related to the accuracy issue I just discussed. All sign projects have stakeholders that must be informed and engaged. This requires that the sign schedule be available in a form that is easily read and reviewed. This review can be aided by displaying your messages in a consistent way and adopting standard conventions.

For example, present the sign messages so that they are capitalized, punctuated, and formatted, as closely as is practical, to their appearance on the actual sign. In the case of multi-column signs this is not always possible, but let that be the exception to a well-followed rule. Also, be consistent in the presentation of non-text sign messages. For example, if you need to indicate the presence of a graphic symbol, and you choose to do this by putting a descriptive phrase such as "Male Toilet Symbol" with brackets or parenthesis, [Male Toilet Symbol], then follow that format consistently throughout your sign schedule.

4. Inflexible format. Death, taxes, and changing sign schedules — all certainties. Trying to create sign schedules in a word processing program is a recipe for disaster. At the very least, create your sign schedule in a spreadsheet program where you can easily sort and rearrange your data. Better yet, use a database or a purpose-built program like Identia Online to manage your sign schedule, and make changes faster and easier.

5. No linkage to sign location plan. The big disadvantage to creating your sign schedule in a spreadsheet or database, and then doing a sign location plan in a drawing program, is that the two pieces of documentation are not linked together. A change, or addition, in one often needs to be reflected in the other. On large projects this can lead to a lot of time wasted spent checking and rechecking sign schedules and location markers. How often have you asked yourself "Am I sure that every sign on my sign schedule is reflected on my location plans, and am I certain that every marker on my plans corresponds to an entry on my sign schedule?" Using a single software tool — such as Identia Online — to create both your sign schedule and sign location plan saves time and headaches.

What is a Browser?

In a random survey conducted by Google this summer in Times Square, only 8% of respondents knew the answer to this question. Google recently put together this nice little video on this topic.

Using Identia Online: Donor Recognition

In the current issue of "Sign & Digital Graphics", John Bosio (associate principal at architecture firm RMJM and director of MERJE, the firm's EGD practice) writes about how to create a donor recognition program. Identia Online can be a valuable tool for managing donor recognition programs, as there is lots of vital information to track and organize (names, corporate identities, class years, etc.). Also, this information often requires many levels of detailed review. Using Identia Online's project information management features makes this process easier and alleviates many of the issues related with donor recognition programs.

Click here to read the article.

Redesigning the Stop Sign

What if a corporation was in charge of inventing stop signs? A funny parody on the designer-client relationship.

Using Identia Online: Presentations

At a recent job meeting, I had to report to the contractor’s site trailer for a final review of the sign schedule and sign location plans for a very large high school. It was daunting to contemplate flipping back and forth through 22 location plans and a 90 page sign schedule to find the scattered signs in question. Then I thought of taking just a laptop so I could review all of the documents at the meeting using Identia Online. A quick call to the contractor to confirm that they had Wi-Fi in the trailer and I was all set.

I decided to take a colleague with me - the person who had actually created the sign schedule. Being knowledgeable about the plans and the sign types, she could quickly scroll thru to the location in question, while I did the talking. She zoomed in on the plan so that it was large enough for everyone to see on the screen. Location markers were moved around, some signs were deleted, and some text was revised – right there at the meeting.

The fire marshal wanted stand pipe ID signs to be added and the architect could look over our shoulders and show us exactly where to place the markers on the plan. It went incredibly fast, and it was great to arrive at the meeting with just a slender laptop case, not burdened with armloads of binders and rolls of drawings. At the end, the senior project manager complimented us on how organized our presentation was.

Architectural Signage, Environmental Graphics, and IPD

An article about IPD, or Integrated Project Delivery, appears in the September 2009 issue of Architect magazine, and I and was struck by its relevance to architectural signage, and environmental graphics. The importance of coordinating the development of sign and environmental graphic programs with the larger overall architectural design, engineering, and general construction process is self-evident, if not easily achieved. So here is a movement within the AEC community that is focused on increasing collaboration between project team members, transparent transfer of information, and risk sharing.

How might the work we do, and the processes we utilize as EGD professionals be altered or improved as we adapt to his larger schema?

For those interested in learning more about Integrated Project Delivery, the AIA has published a 62 page IPD Guide that is available at no cost.

Image credit: Jana Kollarova

Blogs, News, and Other Links: September 2009

Durham's New Wayfinding Program

A design professor from NC State critiques the new wayfinding program installed in Durham, NC.

What is Environmental Graphic Design?

One attempt to explain what EGD is and where it is going.

States and the ADA

A handy list of accessibility regulations for each state. For more info on the ADA, see Sign Builder's special ADA supplement in their August 2009 issue.

Holiday Inn ‘Green’ Signage

Holiday Inn needed new exterior signs for their rebranding effort and used efficient LED lighting.

Wayfinding Through Technology

How technology can assist with wayfinding.

Architectural Signage Outlook

From the August 2009 issue of Sign Builder, a small article on the architectural signage market during this recession.

Traffic Sign Typefaces

A blog post about a new typeface created for highway signs and other wayfinding applications.

Remembering Joan Goody

It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of Joan Goody, principal of the architectural firm Goody Clancy. I have known of her and admired her for 30 years. For women of my generation, Joan was a beacon, showing the way through the labyrinth of the male-dominated world of architecture. I did not know her well enough to be privileged to call her a mentor, but she certainly was a role model. I was always impressed with her youthful vigor, right up to the last months of her life. I found her to be open and approachable and was amazed at her ability to remember names and faces of folks, even lowly sign design consultants like me.

More information on her professional life is available here.

Mint.com to be acquired by Intuit

This week, mint.com announced that it will be acquired by Intuit, makers of Quicken and TurboTax. I use mint.com to manage my personal finances and I think it's great. With mint.com, you can combine your various online financial accounts (banking, credit card, mortgages, investments, etc.) into a single mint.com account, which makes it much easier to track your overall financial picture. There are also great budgeting and "ways to save" tools. And it's free.

Don't know how this acquisition by Intuit will affect mint.com. Hopefully, there won't be any negative changes to the website. There are also some cool opportunities for integration between mint.com and a product like TurboTax. For instance, I could imagine that TurboTax could suck in the information from mint.com that you had labeled as charitable giving.

Check out mint.com if you haven't already. It's not intended for business use, but for personal use, it's really good.