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Creating a Seamless Wayfinding Experience

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Wayfinding and directional sign systems are meant to create an effortless experience for end users. In order to achieve this, designers must integrate signs into an environment seamlessly, enabling the end users to navigate the environment with ease.

Whether these wayfinding and directional systems are created for a college campus or placed within a large commercial building, they must compliment the environment to create a cohesive design.

How can you integrate wayfinding and directional signs into your next sign project?

Data Collection

Although the overall design of signs is important, effective wayfinding begins and ends with data. Wayfinding science relies heavily on how people interact with signs and the surrounding environment, and how designers collaborate with architects (and agricultural architects if working outside) to define how people instinctively navigate the environment.

Some information to consider includes:

●      The length and direction of pathways

●      How busy pathways become

●      Notable peak times when traffic is most condensed

●      Where people need direction the most

Sign Design

While data will improve the effectiveness of wayfinding and directional signs, the design is what allows signs to be seamlessly integrated into an environment.

Signs systems must appear as a natural extension of an environment, which is why they can be created in so many different styles. When working with the right company, designers will have a lot of leeway in creating their signage systems. From minimalist signs that are discreet to robust systems that stand out, there are many options to work with.

You can see many of those options in our gallery.

Testing

Sign systems must be tested and improved upon over time. During the design process, designers utilize objective testing to understand how the end user will be utilizing the space.

Objective testing of people who are unfamiliar with a particular environment will allow designers to create systems that work better than before.

Choosing the Right Partner

At Encompass Sign Systems, we work with designers, architects and sign companies to create wayfinding and directional systems that are both effective and refined.

Contact us today to streamline the planning of your next sign design project.

directional signage, wayfinding signsEncompassComment

A Gold Timex to Photopolymer ADA Signage!

Thanks for your service to industry for the last 25 years. Photopolymer signs have been the predominant choice of designers for tactile ADA signage for a quarter of a century. Thankfully, at the inception of ADA legislation in the late 80’s and early 90’s photopolymer signs provided a standard process and uniform look for ADA signage. 

Without photopolymer ADA signs, designers in the 90’s would have chosen sub-standard, ineffective and random sign designs for their building environments. 

Before Beanie Babies, the World Wide Web, and before anyone understood the importance of branding…. photopolymer signs made it easier to outfit a building with ADA signs.  Even after the Japanese tsunami forced core prices to double, photopolymer signs remained the only good choice for designers. Thankfully, new technology has finally evolved. 

Thermoformed ADA signs give designers the creative latitude and durability that designers need to meet their client’s branding needs, at an appealing price point.  It’s no surprise that according to Dodge Analytics, “Thermoformed ADA signs” saw an increase of 237% in Specifications in 2016. Thermoformed signs are now universally acknowledged in Specs as an “approved equal” to photopolymer signs and that’s a big win for ADA thermoforming manufacturers. Those who really know about the differences between photopolymer ADA signs and thermoformed ADA signs are knocking clients off their feet with new ideas never available until now.

Photopolymer signs are still plenty viable.  There are over 3,000 sign-makers that still maintain their relationship with the two surviving raw material photopolymer providers. Machinery needed to produce these signs still exists and is almost free to get started; it’s the raw photopolymer material price increases to watch out for...  While Father Time and new technology may have caught up to photopolymers signs, their contribution and service to the industry over the last 25 years certainly must be treasured!   

To learn how to use this new thermoforming ADA technology and provide your design team a new design tool belt, durability and scalable branding offering, follow this link http://www.encompasssign.com/gallery/ or simply contact us 855-672-2201

Adam Halverson, Chief Strategist : adamh@encompasssign.com

About Encompass Sign Systems

Encompass Sign Systems specializes in thermoformed tactile signs and leading-edge directional and wayfinding systems. We provide designers and architects with highly scalable wholesale signage that have limitless branding capabilities and unsurpassed durability.