I’ve written this post to express my views after reading this article by Mark Boulton about signage, particularly in airports.

Don’t screw with conventions

I do have issues about signage as do most of us. Many public buildings could do a much better job when it comes to sign design. Hospitals are often guilty of bad signage. I had an appointment at a large hospital recently and it took me 15 minutes to find the department I had to be at, in most part thanks to to the poor signage. I also have a large amount of disdain for the planners of an airport in which I had a particularly stressful experience *cough Gatwick… as it was someones bright idea to make the signage for the departure gates to have less prominence than that of the duty free gift shops around it. Needless to say I spent precious pre-flight moments meandering about the out of town shopping centre that is the terminal lounge at Gatwick.

To me though, signs represent more than the information they were designed to convey. When I step off a plane and into the arrival hall of an airport I’ve just arrived at, mundane signs which direct me to specific areas of the airport often hold a lot of value to me and are sometimes just as pleasurable to look at as the facade of a historic building, an impressive cityscape or any other sights I’m traditionally supposed to enjoy when I’m on holiday.

To prove this point, I can say with certainty that the Greek characters I saw on the signage at the airport in Athens is just as strongly imprinted in my memory as the image of the beaches and the sunsets I enjoyed during my time there. Also, the characters along with the colour scheme of blue and white (Greece’s national colours) helps characterize the country, its people and it’s culture.

Another example is the Schipol airport signage. With my mother being Dutch, I have made regular trips to Holland in my childhood and I have strong memories of the signage at the airport. Along with the bright yellow trains and the stacks of bicycles outside the station, the Schipol airport signage became one of those things which had me realise I had truly arrived in Holland.

The signage at both Athens airport and Schiphol contrast with the signage at Cardiff which Mark described in his article. The signs use Arial which is a typeface that lends absolutely zero favours in making signage distinctive. I’d personally expect to see this signage in a hospital corridor, or the waiting room of a public building. The sign does nothing to be distinctive and memorable in any way.

Designers of airport signs should not restrict their concerns to how to help people navigate themselves around, they should be aware that the humble airport sign is the first thing a visitor focuses on when stepping into the country that the airport resides, and so airport signage should be not only functional but also distinctive and as a bonus represent the visual style of the country in a way.