Studio Brief 1 - Wayfinding - Grid Format and Adjusting Designs

Adapting designs to fit in a circular format

A grid system was developed for the circular part of the arrows so that the designs would have a consistent format. The circle was split into ratios, halves, thirds and also combinations of overlapping grid lines. This provides a framework that is flexible but structured allowing cohesiveness across the pictograms.

Vectorising some of the designs made it easier to see which designs were working in the grid system, it allowed me to compare similarities in style and refine symbols further. In some of them there were too many elements or lines which made the designs stand out more than others. From these a few designs for each location were shortlisted.

These symbols were then compared further using a similar technique. For some choosing the most appropriate symbol for the location was difficult.

Specific decisions

The initial symbol for Leeds city council I felt contrasted too much in shape with the rest of the pictograms. Although the church also used a triangle, the columns on either side were too close to the edges making it look cramped within the space. Swapping this symbol for one of the Millennium square symbols meant there were more similarities in form. The symbol made reference to the ‘building’ as well as the owls in front of it making it appropriate as a representation for either location. Further refinements of this symbol meant moving the smaller square up so they were less near the edge and later they were moved to either side of the larger square which I felt was more balanced.

The school board sign was adapted from the initial ‘open book’ icon to reflect the stairs of the building. The triangles in the initial design were not enough like ones in other designs, whilst also looking clumsy in the grid system. The stairs elevate the place above everything else and for me represent the eliteness of the school making it an appropriate choice.