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. A also found 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 which Mark described in his article. 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.

Create your word

Use your favourite graphics editor to get your word up on screen. Use whatever font you like or create your own, I used Clarendon, a nice looking serif font. Use a dark fill colour so it’s easy to trace. Print it out.

Trace away!

Get another sheet of regular printer paper, place on top of the printout and trace with a pencil. I used 90gsm thick paper which did the job fine. First draw the outline and then fill in using strokes roughly in the same direction. The whole idea is to create a hand drawn style so it doesn’t have to be perfect. Any mistakes can be erased in Photoshop.

If you don’t hold a lot of regard for the well-being of your monitor you can do it the quick way (like I did) use masking tape to stick your sheet to the screen and simply trace directly. It might sound ridiculous but this works wonders as the screen acts as a backlight and makes it easier to trace accurately.

Finish it

Use a brush to iron out any mistakes, it might be an idea to leave small blemishes in for the imperfect look. When you’ve done so, go to image adjustments > desaturate then image > adjustments > invert. Increase the contrast through image > adjustments > brightness/contrast. I increased contrast to +100 but it’s dependent on how dark your pencil strokes were. You might also want to adjust levels to get the desired look.

Simply, if you want to declare a repeating image, for example, repeat-x or no-repeat, you need to make sure there is a space before it.

This WILL NOT work in IE
div#examplediv{
background:url(bgimage.png)no-repeat;
}

This WILL work in IE
div#examplediv{
background:url(bgimage.png) no-repeat;
}

aRILLO

The typography used for the headings, the colour pallette and the dotted background really work in creating cohesion between the site itself and his print and packaging work being showcased. I really like Helvetica when used well, and he pulls it off brilliantly.

His print and packaging work is what it’s all about though. His CV poster is stunning and I love those cassette badges too.

Now I’ve got the means to do so, I’m going to start writing some articles about web design. I’ve learnt a thing or two about the practice of web design over the last year or so, and much of it is thanks to designers like Chris Coyier, Adii, Darren Hoyt, and Elliot Jay Stocks.

So it’s only fair that I share some of my knowledge, hopefully to help out people who are in the position I was about a year ago. I’ll be writing about the pitfalls of CSS, Internet Explorer (you could write a thesis on that), Wordpress, and a bunch of other things that might take your interest.