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.