OUGD601: Module Evaluation

Over the course of this module I have discovered and adapted my skills in signage, way finding and environmental graphic design. Through the practical exploration, (site analysis, sign development) in my primary research to reading and understanding the full amount of work, thesis, research and knowledge that goes into the creation of a wayfinding system. I have also vastly improved on my research and academic writing skills. For my research I consumed many different sources from the primary (including interviews and physical analysis) to secondary (from videos to articles to academic texts), I have found that through a vast improvement in organisation I was able to achieve more and thus produce a piece of writing that surpasses what I have handed in over the past two years. One key skill I have achieved through this module is the ability to adapt a previously existing brand in a new and exciting way. Although I initially believed that having most design decisions made for me would make the production of signs easier, it in fact made it rather difficult. The important consideration was to produce something that stood strong on its own but that also acted as an extension of the Leeds College of Art brand and I took great care to pick and choose the aesthetic elements that best translated from two dimensional material into three dimensional signs.

My approach to this module began as a purely academic one. I made sure to read and understand thoroughly what I was going to discuss before I gave my dissertation a title. This intense need to fully understand did cost me a fair bit of time and with no solid title in place my subject swayed slightly from one place to the next. Whereas over summer I had read into graphic design for social change I then transitioned into graphic design that makes a difference, followed by signs and their development and history and finally into environmental graphic design and wayfinding. However, that being said I am glad I allowed myself to wander from subject to subject, although it meant a lot of work and effort ended up not being used it did mean that I arrived on a subject that I find genuinely interesting, and one I would never have found on my own. As I transitioned from writing to practical development I still remained quite firmly in the research front, however this was a more physical form of research and a wonderful transition from writing to production. Sign systems require a lot of research and understanding of a site in order to work and become functional. Over the course of two days I walked the site again and again, making notes, creating a site journey, assessing where the best placement for specific signage would be. The actual production of the signs probably took the least amount of time, and aside from meticulously picking over aesthetic decisions most of the decisions had already been made, the content, the placement, the hierarchy of information, the size. So the final push to production was rather enjoyable and almost the payoff after doing such in depth research.

Within this module my strengths included researching, and understanding. The full knowledge fed into every aspect of my work from the dissertation to the practical, and in this was I feel the two really synthesise and work off of each other, rather than follow on from each other. I also believe visually my signs look wonderful, they feel suitable to the site and the users, suitable to the brand and the Leeds College of Art personality and a rather interesting take on the idea of signage, although they follow the conventions of sign systems their unique look and shape makes them an interesting thing to look at. My weaknesses most involve time management and organisation, I would transition from bursts of productiveness to utter lethargy. This meant that often I would find myself panicking and pulling all nighters desperately trying to catch up. If I had managed to achieve this level of productiveness throughout the module then I would have a much stronger final product, both written and physical.

If I were to repeat this module again I would settle on a topic much quicker, meaning that I had more time to organise myself properly and fully explore all different types of research. I would also organise my time better making sure that I had more time to explore primary research and get thorough feedback on each stage of my project. If I had achieved both of these changes I feel I could add more to all aspects of the module, producing a fully rounded discussion and perhaps even physically creating a new sign system and installing it into the graphic design department. Or perhaps extending the signage across the entire university. There is still plenty of room for development, but overall I am rather pleased with what I have managed to achieve. 

OUGD601: Dissertation Practical- Final Designs

The final publication looks rather professional, even if the stock is a little see through, and the to scale sign, although not made out of the final acrylic material really gives a physical sense of scale to the signage within the project.

I am rather pleased with the sign system as a whole, it certainly feels a lot more at home in the hallways of LCA than the current signage. It acts as an extension of the current brand yet manages to become a beautiful thing all on its own. 

OUGD601: Dissertation Practical- Publication Design

To fully organise all of my content I made some quick sketches of page designs. Using the pictorial content I had already generated as my guide, I arranged the publication according to the images with space left available for written content to be added.

For the style and design of the booklet I wanted to keep things fairly simple. The main event is the signs and the image so I chose to have blank and minimal page layouts with a minimum amount of text. The only detailing I added was an addition of the tile shapes to each title page as well as translating the use of the font A2 Grot regular and bold for the text throughout the book.

The written content was derived from abbreviating my design decisions and inspirations written about in previous blog posts.

OUGD601: Dissertation Practical- Signs in Context

As a part of my practical submission not only do I have to create the new sign system but I also want to represent it in context of the college. To achieve this I took high quality photographs of the department and photoshopped the signs into place. I made the decision to change the colours of the door from turquoise to grey. Grey not only makes the signs stand out better but it is also the colour used on pretty much all of the other doors across the college.

Whilst going through the process of making a flat image look three dimensional, adding texture and shadows and creating a realistic perspective I also produced the artwork and decals for both the studios and the hallway. By adding shapes and decoration into the existing photos I was able to demonstrate how these designs would look, the material of choice for these decorations would be vinyl stickers. They are easy to apply and easy to produce, and they also give a high quality glossy look.

OUGD601: Dissertation Practical- Digital Development

For the beginning of my digital sign development I went through the aesthetic brand decisions already made in the existing brand to act as the basis for my designs. The first was shapes, the basic hardware and style for the rest of the signage to be built around. The logo tile is the most frequently used shape and it was difficult to source other tile shapes to apply to different sign types, however from the LCA brand guidelines I found a collection of different mosaic styles and so used these to create the different shapes.

The next was type, having my content to hand from the site analysis it was simply a case of choosing the most suitable typeface for the signage system. I experimented with different variants of the typefaces used throughout the brand guidelines, placing them onto the existing shapes to see which combinations looked best. In the end I opted for A2 Grot bold and regular. I chose this type not only because it was the most aesthetically pleasing but also because of the adaptability when using a type family. In my essay I spoke about the use of type families as a way to define the hierarchy of a sign and so the combination of both a bold and regular font will maintain legibility but also act as a way to divide content and create a natural flow of information.

For the course specific signs I have chosen to use the traditional LCA logo shape. Course specific identification signage includes studio numbers and staff offices. To distinguish each year's studio from each other there will be a change in tone from light for level 4 darkening as it gets towards level 6. Staff offices will remain the full tone, same as the level 6 studio spaces.

Different tile types are used for the other types of sign across the college. Small/pictorial identification signage uses the pentagon shaped tile. Longer directional signs with a higher amount of content use the elongated tile. And identification/regulatory signs unrelated to a specific subject use the more squat looking tile as they don't need as much content. The organisation of various shapes keeps a consistent style throughout the system whilst also categorising different variants of signage within it making it easier to identify different signs for different purposes. This can be especially useful if the individual is visually impaired or colour blind, it means that from the basic sign shape alone they can identify the type of sign they are looking at and identify them from a greater distance than a set of signs that are all the same shape. This way also keeps the system interesting, no initially unique shape becomes dull and overused.

 Each subject has it's own specific colour; taken from the existing colour pallet provided in the brand guidelines, which is to be used within their individual signage. This will not only bring about a sense of individuality for each course; whilst remaining within the style of the whole system, but also make it easier to identify one department from another. For a student who is new to the building or perhaps attempting to locate a department they would not normally have gone to this colour coding can assist in identifying their destination making it easier to get from A to B.

The colours used for the rest of the college, or the none course specific signage will be in a more muted tone, something that contrasts enough from the course colours to be identified as a whole different set of signs and that is readily available from the brand guidelines colour pallet. Though by all means it shouldn't be a dull colour, it should still stand out and work well with the set of signs. I chose the muted grey blue, it's not dull like the generic grey implemented in the current LCA sign system, but it's also not over powering.

I experimented with combinations of type again when it came to the larger information based orientation sign. As there would be a lot of text present I was concerned that the difference between title and content would be too little, thus making it harder to understand the hierarchy, however once combined I stuck to my guns and used Grot bold and regular. It would be a strange departure from the rest of the system if I adding in an extra font for the sake of it, plus with enough variation in size the hierarchy flowed just as easily with a lot of text as it did with a smaller amount.

For the larger sign it became difficult to incorporate a large amount of text in such an oddly shaped set of signs. Of course it would be impossible not to keep within the theme and style of the whole signage system so I experimented with different ways of layering tiles and then adding text. In my initial sketches I had wanted to create an overlapping sign with bumps and ridges making it stand out from the wall. However this made a strange snaking looking thing that didn't really fit with the other signs, plus it made it almost impossible to add text into each shape with the usable space cut off even further from the overlapping edges. 

I eventually settled on a set of individual tiles placed close together. This worked very well as it linked the whole sign back to it's inspiration and origin, the mosaic that was the original logo for LCA prior to the rebrand. Not only does it work with the current brand but also the previous one as well as the rest of the signage.

To add further clarity to the orientation sign I chose to 'high light' the current floor. Popping out a bright colour contrasted with the muted grey it makes it very clear which level of the building you are on. Such a high contrast also aids the visually impaired, although the details maybe difficult to make out it becomes obvious, even from a distance, which floor you are on.

For each orientation sign I wanted to make it pop a bit more with the addition of course colours. To keep the sign tied a separate thing from the courses I used the blue grey but popped out small features with a distinctive course colour. Depending on the placement of the sign and which ever department they are nearest this orientation sign suddenly becomes an identification sign too. Through identifying the closest department it announces to the user you have arrived in art, advertising etc. and makes the act of finding your way easier still, you know where you are or where you're near without having to be stood directly in front of the studio doors. In this way colour links orientation and identification signs together creating a breadcrumbed direction link. When a user views the orientation sign they can see they are close to a specific department, when they see this department colour again they know they have arrived.

OUGD601: Dissertation Practical- Sketches and Ideas

Throughout the process of sign development there are several things that need to be considered, as I have outlined in my essay. The first is sign placement and content which has been achieved through the site and floor plan analysis. The second is material hardware and types of sign, alongside branding and sign personality. The sign personality will be derived from the LCA branding bringing a branding experience to life not just on paper and promotional materials but also within the site itself. 

The sign hardware and sign types are usually derived from budget and available space. Due to the buildings narrow hallways and lack of freestanding space I have chosen to opt for wall mounted signage. This will also allow me to blend the decals and artworks into the sign system making the two appear one and the same whilst bringing the walls to life. Wall mounted signs are often the cheaper alternative as well and considering the university most likely has a minimal budget (based on the existing quality of the signs in place) this seems like the sensible option.

My choice of materials is acrylic plastic. This versatile material is also low cost thus adding less strain to the budget, whilst being malleable enough to be moulded into any shape and used in any colour. This is perfect for what I have in mind as it gives me the ability to push the shape, style and colours of the signs to extremes whilst at the same time retaining a simple budget.

Description of Acrylic as a material for signs from The Wayfinding Handbook

Acrylic signs are also the most common, with the material being so easy to access and so cheap even the current LCA signage uses it. 

Sketches and Ideas

The first thing that you notice when looking at the LCA branding is the mosaic motif, this iconic shape translates across many different platforms and represents the colleges history, previous identity and the artistic nature of the students and institute. It is a strong jumping off point to incorporate into the signage and so I used it as the basic shape or inspirations for the shapes of the signs.

For the orientation/room numbers sign I want to have a collection of mosaic tiles running into each other. This takes the singular tile motif and begins to create a collection or mosaic. It also allows the tile look to translate into the entire sign family, creating a long flowing sign instead of having to use on large tile to contain the information or a different shape entirely.

Fore the toilet direction sign I may have to use the multiple tile technique too as trying to warp an arrow into a angled tile shape is difficult, and stretching the tie out doesn't look too good or in keeping with the style. However I will experiment further in digital development.

With the room and studio numbers I want to use both singular numbers on some rooms and writing and numbers on particular studios such as level 5, staff office etc. However the hierarchy may be difficult to achieve on such a difficult shape, with squares and rectangles the alignment is left or central and the text flows, however with a miscellaneous tile shape some tweaking may be required. 

I went around the site again with a measuring tape, now knowing where I wanted to signs to go and what I want them to look like I needed to gauge the size of them. The signs need to be large enough to be readable but appropriate to the wall size. So I took these measurements as a guide for when I start developing the final designs.

Pushing the mosaic and tile design further I want to incorporate the shapes into the decals and artwork to be used within the studios and the graphic design department. For each year group the concept of the design changes to match the year. For the first year I have chosen a scattered/shattered look to the tiles, this represents the passionate but unsure nature of a first year student. Most enter the course unaware of what various forms it takes and what they are best at, what they love and what they hate, this is represented through the decal and the multiple varied shapes scattered across the wall. 

Level 5 has less shapes but still a scattered number in a solid outline. This connotes the more well rounded and growing knowledge, as well as the beginnings of specialisms within each student. Throughout second year most students can begin to call themselves designers as well as producing work they can class as professional, however there is still much further room for progression. I wanted to represent this with the condensing of the scattered shapes into larger shapes across the wall, however the fact they are only outlines shows an incompleteness and a sense of further progression to be had. 

For the third years decals there are only two solid shapes (Although they appear as outlines in the sketch they will be solid shapes) these are filled to show a completeness and a full rounding off of the student/designer. However there will be two shapes instead of one complete decal, this is because of the further progression still to be made. Although a third year's specialisms and craft will be strongly developed there is still an intense amount of learning to be done, not only through the final year but also in future work, jobs and projects. 

OUGD601: Dissertation Chapter Summary- Chapter 4

In my fourth chapter I will be applying the branding principles discussed in chapter three to the aesthetic development of sign systems. I will also be drawing from the second chapter discussing visual based decisions whilst at the same time keeping communication at the heart of wayfinding. This chapter will look at various different design choices from type and colour to hardware and sign shape.

Chapter 4 Plan

Sources I will be using:
Signage and Wayfinding Design: A Complete Guide to Creating Environmental Graphic Design Systems (Calori)
The Wayfinding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places (Gibson)
Signage Systems and Information Graphics: A Professional Source Book (Uebele)
Calvert Interview from the Design Museum
Sign Design Guide (Barker and Fraser)
Sign Graphics (Serrats)