A Sign is a Design Fail

How could the communication features in our cities help everyone feel safe, informed and led?

While standard signage can play an important role in connecting people to different places, warning potential dangers, providing instructions and reinforcing a community vibe, having too much signage or the wrong kind of signage can create the opposite effect.

Most signage and wayfinding design firms tend to go down the safer path. Cognitive signage, by contrast, requires a deep dive into the human condition and what makes them engage, be informed and comfortable. It's not a common design practice.

Asking when is signage needed at all, and what is it for; what’s the difference between signage/wayfinding, is there any; who is it for, what does it need to function and how else does or could the city communicate with us might help us get around standard signage thinking and allow us to branch out into new environmental communications systems ideas to communicate messages to the widest range of people both now and in the future.