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Live at Amberleigh!
We just helped one of our best clients Morningstar Homes get ready for opening their new Burke Mountain community “Amberleigh”. It is a neighbourhood of 67 village-style single family homes (with detached rear garages) ranging in size from 3096 sq.ft. to 3238 sq.ft. and looks like a top notch development.
Here are a couple of pictures of their development signage and new houses. We will add more pictures of their additional signage in the future.
Cheers,
Speedpro Coquitlam
Scridb filterWay-Finding Signage.
If you are moving into a beautiful new building or you want to help your employees and customers navigate your current building; the answer is deploying a “Way-finding” signage system.
We have compiled some best practices for creating guiding signage below. If you have any additional questions or would like some ideas on how we help you deploy way-finding signage, please give us a call.
- Is your office a blank canvas for directional signs?
Way-finding Signage Considerations:
1.) Consistency
Consistency is the key to way-finding signage. Every sign should utilize the same visual elements and be placed in a similar manner. This creates a “system” that your visitors will recognize.
2.) Wording
Complicated technical terms may be fine for employees but not the general public. Customers tend to think in actions, they want to pay bills, make appointments, get service or place orders. Try to use language that facilitates the task they are looking to complete.
3.) Brevity
Determine which messages needs to stand out. Too much information can overwhelm the reader and keep them from their goal, which is to complete their transaction.
4.) Colour
It may seem obvious but use colors that contrast well so the message is easily visible. No yellow text on white back-grounds!
5.) Fonts/Typefaces
Block or San Serif fonts work better than intricate script fonts. Canadian federal buildings uniformly use Helvetica Medium, in all their signage to create a uniform and easy to read system nation-wide.
For more technical typographers out there; The American Disabilities Association(ADA) suggests Letters and numbers shall have a width-to-height ratio between 3:5 and 1:1 and a stroke-width to-height ratio between 1:5 and 1:10
6.) Flexibility
Where things are located within your building may change over time. Try to use a flexible signage system that allows you to update components easily.
Sign Placement Guidelines
In many cases the architect will have determined sign placement in a new building. For everyone else we have offered guidelines based on Speedpro’s experience.
- Way-finding placement guidelines.
1.) Inside Signage
Directory Signs – You don’t want people kinking their neck up or down to read information placed near the ceiling or the floor. Generally you
do not want the bottom to be lower than 4 feet and the top not higher than 7 feet at the top.
Door Signage – These need to be at eye level, of course everyone’s eye level is different, but generally you want to go between 4 ½ feet to 5 ½ feet from the ground. Always think about the audience, elementary schools are different than offices.
2.) Outside Signage
Parking Lot/Roadway Signs
According to a study by the SGIA , signs are most visible when placed within 20 degrees of the driver’s line of sight. If driving at 30 km/h the driver requires about 150 ft. In this case the sign needs to be 26 feet on either side of their direct line of vision. The diagram below demonstrates this:
Text Size - For Signs to be legible to someone while driving their car the font size should be at least 4 inches.
Height – These need to be visible above the roofs of most vehicles. This enables people to see them across a row of parked cars if needed. So 7 feet is generally suggested
Walkway Signs – These are usually seen from a distance so they don’t need to be exactly at Eyelevel. We suggest 5 feet off the ground.
- Parking Lot Signage Guidelines.
Hopefully this post helps you find your way, with regards to “Way-finding” Signage. If you want to see some more examples of our work, please click here and if have any questions about signs you can contact us by clicking here.
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