CPD

ABOUT ATELIER WORKS

We love architecture. We both probably should have been architects, but took a slightly different branch on the design tree: graphic design.

We satisfy our love for buildings by visiting them all over the world; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim in New York, Frank Gehry’s in Bilbao, the Roman Mithraeum under Foster’s Bloomberg, Pompeii, Göreme, Herzog & de Meuron’s Prada in Aoyama, shop houses in Penang, Chipperfield’s Museum Island in Berlin.

And by working with today’s best architects on new buildings. We show some of the projects we have been privileged to be involved with over the last thirty years on the page opposite, from airports to schools to passive houses to Grade 1 listed buildings.

One of the main features of graphic design for architecture is the sensitive handling of signs. The juxtaposition of word and structure; how to choose a typeface or draw bespoke letterforms, how to set it out, space it properly, furnish it with arrows and icons, drawings or photographs, translate it into the threedimensional world with the right colour and form. All of this whilst ensuring it becomes an architectural element in sympathy with and enhancing the building: helping build a Gesamtkunstwerk.

This brief booklet outlines our process – which we think is the process of anyone going about the business of designing a wayfinding scheme. The booklet can act as a kind of checklist for how to do wayfinding; what needs to be considered, in what order.

The examples of finished projects that we show, similarly, can be used as indicators of the variety of possible responses. Design prompts.

Ian & Quentin

Background image: A type tree created for the Royal Automobile Club’s Woodcote Park. The ‘leaves’ spell out the wonderfully named flora in the surrounding parkland.

WAYSHOWING

Below we illustrate a set of wayfinding projects completed by Atelier Works. Theorist Francis Ching identified five ways of organising a building – central, linear, radial, clustered and grid. But as any student of architecture knows, there is infinite variation in how you combine those organisational tropes. Whilst there might be five principal starting points, in reality there are as many types of spaces as there are buildings. We have found the only way to design navigation for a building is to move through the building as it actually is – preferably in the flesh, but with unbuilt buildings, somewhat inevitably on plans.

John Robertson Architects Bush House

Bennetts Associates Camden Council HQ

John McAslan + Partners Roundhouse

Herzog & de Meuron Royal College of Art

Cartwright Pickard Lambeth Town Hall & Civic Centre

Henry J Lyons Royal College of Surgeons

David Chipperfield Architects River & Rowing Museum

Bennetts Associates Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Zaha Hadid Architects Central Bank of Iraq

ANALYSIS

Establishing the basis

This stage is about looking in detail at the building in question. Visiting and walking round it if it exists, doing the same with paper plans and 3D realisations if it is yet to be built. It shapes our understanding of the way the building will be used. We need to make repeated ‘walk throughs’ of the building, assuming different needs; a quick visit considering use of facilities, visual impairment, parents with children, wheelchair, people with limited English. We can’t foresee every kind of human, but imagining a variety helps us avoid lazy assumptions. There are detailed guidelines on access to be considered. The end result of this first analysis is a detailed inventory; plans showing where all the signs might sit and what all the signs might say.

Analyse Conceive Develop and Execute

Site visits and/or review plans/elevations establish types of building user & their journeys establish sightlines establish decision making points explore user access issues establish wayfinding strategy compile sign inventory onto plans presentation/review by client

ACCESS

Designing for everyone

The BS8300 Code of Practice gives guidelines for the signs in public buildings. Unlike emergency signs, navigational signs are not mandatory. The guidelines cover the physical manifestations of signs and have been drawn up with input from the RNIB and other highly experienced bodies. The guidelines provide firm advice on issues of visibility, making the building accessible for everyone. Any design we embark on has these recommendations at their core. (Our diagram on the right refers to BS8300:2009; Section 9, Surfaces and Communication Aids, the latest iteration at time of writing.)

BS8300 recommends, as a guide: x-height is to be 6% of viewing distance

x height of ‘a’ 24 mm x height of ‘a’ 60 mm x height of ‘a’ 1200 mm Viewing distance 10m Such as longer space

4m Such as corridor approaching room / wall at angle

20m+ Such as big exterior signs, super-graphics, choices over these sizes ultimately depend on many factors: contrast, materials, colour, contrast, angles...

Contrast

The navigation elements must work in a way that presents no issues with colourblindness, and enable very high contrast between message and background. Key signs should aim at 100% contrast.

Font

Typeface choice must satisfy corporate identity needs, the building aesthetic and BS8300 recommendations.

Sizes

For the key elements of wayfinding: floor numbers, threshold signs, room numbers: should use sizes in excess of BS8300 minimums. Room and toilet door signs can be in raised tactile form.

Light reflectance value

All key signs should be finished as matt or silk, to minimise reflection and glare. Key signs should be in excess of the 70% LRV minimum.

Simplicity & coherence

All names and terminology should be simplified as far as possible, and be coherent across all manifestations. Signs should be minimised, in design and in types and in number, and placed in obvious and predictable positions based on circulation, at consistent heights.

CS.1.03

CS.1.02

Plotting the decision points

OS.1.15

OS.1.14

SG.1.01

FN.1.01

OS.1.18

OS.1.17

SS.1.02

smooth flow through a building involves confident steps, where you can see where to move next. Hesitancy, places when you are not sure where to go next, are what we call decision points, they suggest places to put signs, like at the start of a corridor, outside a lift. Signs well placed, remove the hesitation entirely, and guide you from one set of confident steps to the next. The best experience of a building is to move through it without ever having to consciously look for a sign.

TG.1.01 TG.1.03

TG.1.02

OS.1.09 OS.1.07

At the analysis stage we often use coloured labels, indicating the type of sign on the building plan. Colour coding at this stage is rarely part of the final design scheme because people read text first, colour second. This helps the process of arriving at a sign family; all directional signs might be of one physical form for example, all locational signs might be on a sign datum line.

OS.1.04 SS.1.01

FS.1.01

OS.1.16 OS.1.06 OS.1.08 PB.1.02

DG.1.05 CS.1.01

OS.1.05

A plan detail, showing a combined floor directory and floor directions, opposite a lift core.

DS.1.01

A plan from an inventory. The labels indicate the type of sign and on which surface it needs to sit. The code links to a catalogue of the ‘legends’: what is on the sign.

DESIGN CONCEPTS

Finding a core design idea

This stage starts with the inventory of the previous stage, and extracting from it a ‘sign family’. The family is a set of sign types suggested by their role (locational, directional), and how they can be grouped, what design characteristics they share (size, position, type). We look for a core concept that can act as the generating design idea. It is likely to be based on a feature of the architecture; materials such as perforated acoustic panelling, or the listed status which limits fixings, or the reconciliation of the corporate brand with the building’s aesthetic.

Analyse

Conceive Develop and Execute

Start design concepts, considering architecture wayfinding strategy the user journeys existing branding access issues establish design of key sign types test sizes of concept designs on site presentation/review by client

SIGN FAMILY

Each sign playing a role

The basis of any wayfinding scheme is the sign family, derived from the inventory; what needs to be communicated and where. The sign family is a set of sign types, that naturally take differing forms. Signs to be read at a distance are larger than signs that can be read close-up. Signs with more content need to be larger than signs that are a single number.

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Sifting for gold

‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. We look for some constraint, a lack of a wall, a very modest budget, complexity, to force on us a solution that will guide the design of the signs. Hunting for this single principle is our natural instinct – to be reductive, and to create something distinctive. It is a taxing way to start, but it helps marry the signs with the architecture in a satisfying way.

INTERPRETATION

Placemaking

On many projects there is a need to present a narrative, tell a story. It might be the rich life of the building, or all the people that have passed through it, or the history flowing past like the river in front. This kind of story telling helps intensify the sense of place, the uniqueness of the architecture, how a building sits in the latest manifestation of a continuum.

Circular holes in the acoustic panelling were carried through in all other signs.

A building with extensive use of glass and open spaces: we use the glazing and stair-core for signs.

A newly pedestrianised road in Lambeth, with raised plant beds that double as benches, emblazoned with Van Gogh’s ruminations on living in the area.

A new staircase next to London Bridge provided a new viewing platform, showcasing the river.

DEVELOPMENT

Fleshing out the scheme

Drilling down into the detail of typeface, arrows and icons. Often, because of specific needs, we find we need to radically alter an existing typeface, or draw it from scratch. Making sure a font can be cast in iron (the letters need thickening) or carved into stone (you need serifs) or be sprayed on a wall (you need a stencil typeface, little connectors to each letter’s inner-counter). We need to ensure the icons match the typeface, so the signs feel coherent, of a piece. We draw maps if they are required, some schemes do not need them, some schemes consist almost wholly of maps. All of this is thoroughly tested in situ, then final signs prototyped, and then we make final drawings for manufacture.

Design development update sign inventory with client prepare initial specification prepare prototypes prepare detailed specification carry out access testing on site presentation/review by client preparation of package for tender

Design execution update sign inventory prepare artwork for every sign quality checks at manufacturers attend installation review by client creation of handover/maintenance manual potential ongoing operational review

DESIGN DETAIL

Dotting the i’s

Some design schemes have to utilise an existing corporate or brand typeface, and a logo, as was the case with Camden Council. We used the friendly curved form of the distinctive

MAPPING

Instant orientation

Maps are a good way of giving a user an immediate sense of the building; how many floors, how far to walk? The public are becoming increasingly familiar with maps, they are in every smartphone, on every dashboard. But there is always the issue of orientation, should the map be positioned with north at the top, or to suit the user’s position? Sometimes maps benefit for being literal, sometimes from being ideographic.

Left, a conventional internal map focused on rooms, the route is implied. Right, a simplified version focused on the route; where routes and

LEAVING AN IMPRESSION

Acknowledging donors

Some projects are funded by philanthropists. They should be acknowledged in a way that accommodates their desire for prominence and elegant permanence. The trick is to find a solution that stands out and yet fits into the architecture, that feels special yet natural. Two recent installations shown here are for the Royal College of Art, by Herzog and de Meuron, and the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, by Bennetts Associates – both use materials as the core of a solution.

numbers are larger within the same space.

The donors for the new Royal College of Art building. The donor plaques being

in iron.

The donors who helped build the new Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists,

bricks.

PLAN OF WORK

Working in parallel

We show our design stages for wayfinding mapped against the RIBA Plan of Work. This alignment is an ideal, and will lead to the most integrated scheme, building and signs as one. In some circumstances, wayfinding is collapsed into RIBA stages 4 and 5. Sometimes even just 5!

OUR SKILLS

Architecture in graphic forms

We have been designing as Atelier for over thirty years. Although we greatly enjoy wayfinding, and interpretative design projects, we also produce other kinds of graphic design that overlap with the world of architecture; designing at every scale, we branded the RIBA; its websites, books, infographics, exhibitions. We enjoy working directly with architects, creating websites, designing books and exhibitions. There is little we don’t tackle with relish.

OUR TEAM

Many hands make light work

Working in a team is our lifeblood. Whilst creative ideas happen inside your head, they stay stuck in there unless they are expressed, articulated by language, by drawing: and then assessed by others. The great skill is to retain a core conceptual strength, whilst weighing criticism or insights, and adjusting the design to address these. We see our team as including the architect, the client and any others involved in the design. Sign manufacturers always have useful points to raise about how the signs should be realised.

OUR STUDIO, 21a

Housed in a Victorian oasis

The architecture and atmosphere of Pullens Yards, where our studio sits, are worth experiencing. The original Victorian cobbled streets are some of the last left in South London. The artists and designers who inhabit the sixty or so studios in the yards, fling open their doors twice a year, in the summer and just before Christmas, to exhibit and sell their wares in Pullens Open Studios; creative hand crafts of every kind; from rugs to paintings, honey to posters, silverwork to artisanal beer.

Book-in-progress meeting with Ricky Burdett’s LSE team.

THEN & NOW

The Roundhouse, London

John McAslan + Partners

The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm has lived through a lot of history. Created in 1846 as a maintenance shed for locomotives, it was used as a gin warehouse for 100 years. In the 1960s, its unique drum shape and central location soon had a staggeringly diverse list of performers lining up to use it as a venue; Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Andy Warhol, Pablo Neruda, the Ramones. To match the architect’s robust refurbishment, we borrowed from an engineering and warehouse aesthetic, modifying a typeface to be sprayed directly onto the walls.

CUTTING EDGE

Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland Henry J Lyons

The RCSI opened a brand new ten-storey teaching building in Dublin — with a three-storey library, operating theatres, auditoria, teaching rooms and sports facilities. Underpinning the design approach is the idea that the graphics ought to grow out of the architectural language. We do this using established design features — the ceiling diagonals, the neutrally coloured materials, the cutting-through of walls, floors and the ceiling. We translated the architectural forms into graphic diagonals, a palette of white and greys, and stencil cutting.

King’s College London KCL Estates Team

King’s College London is ranked amongst the top universities in the world, but its Strand Campus is an assemblage of disparate buildings, so the university went unnoticed by the public. We created a long frieze of the university’s alumni, from its founder to its most recent graduates; nearly two hundred years of Nobel prizes, medical discoveries, national leaders, and furthering human knowledge. Instead of just looking at a logo, passers by can grasp King’s contribution to society. Variants of the frieze have been extended to all King’s campuses, unifying their entire estate.

An initial plan was hatched to sign the perimeter of the campus with signs carrying ‘King’s college london’ lettering. The encumbent designer pointed out that the repetition of the King’s logo on listed buildings would be very unsatisfactory – planning consent would not be sympathetic to a rash of logos. besides, as most of the logos would have to be sited above eye level, they would be easily missed by the pedestrian.

The designer’s alternative solution was to create an historical time frieze along the entire Strand campus frontage. This concept was developed to feature the King’s associates, alumni and undergraduates.

LANDMARK

King’s College London

Built in 1935, Bush House was then the most expensive building in the world; with its Portland stone exterior and a palatial interior of marble floors and travertine walls. Today it is Grade II listed and during term time over 5,000 people move through its four separate wings and 42 interconnected floors. The directory totems are constructed from strong interlocking acrylic panels, that avoid permanent fixings. Elsewhere, a palette of carved, painted and vinyl lettering has been sensitively deployed – balancing wayfinding needs with architectural constraints.

John Robertson Architects

TODAY’S 9 TO 5

Clockwise; London, Leeds, Manchester Morey Smith

Clockwise is anticipating that serviced offices are the future. Their flexible contracts are ideal for many kinds of organisations; start-ups, those rapidly expanding, those that want a city pied à terre. We helped various architects with the branding and wayfinding for several new sites. Ensuring the crisp, bright, no-nonsense Clockwise brand was integrated within converted buildings. Finding ways (such as the office numbering) to exploit the clock motif in the branding.

STRIKING A BALANCE

Camden Council built brand new headquarters – with an anticipated footfall of 1,000,000 visits a year. Since this is a public building in the truest sense, it had to be fully inclusive. Our wayfinding graphics are an important contribution to the success of the building, acknowledged by the architects. “It is testimony to Atelier’s collaborative approach that the boundary between the graphics and architecture is seamless. Their work adds greatly to the experience and enjoyment of the building.”

Camden Council HQ, London Bennetts Associates

IT’S GOT TO BE INNOVATIVE

Royal Collage of Art, London Herzog & de Meuron

“It’s got to look special you know, we’re the Royal College of Art” was frequently whispered in our ear as we worked on a wayfinding for the RCA’s new campus buildings. Designed by world-leading architects Herzog & de Meuron, the two wings encourage collaboration between art and design disciplines such as sculpture, fashion and moving image with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects such as computer materials science, robotics and intelligent mobility.

Atelier recommended restraint, convincing the project decision-makers that helping students and staff find their way to their workstations was far more important than making a sign statement. Instead, the signs were designed to be an extension of the building aesthetic, sitting alongside the exposed galvanised electrical conduit and using doors as signs. Our ‘innovation’ is not obvious; all signs can be manufactured and updated in the RCA’s new workshops, so in they can manage their own wayfinding updates in the future.

MIRRORING THE RIVER

River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames David Chipperfield Architects

The River and Rowing Museum’s main building is a long boat-housetype barn, with the entire ground floor glazed floor-to-ceiling. This means it needed manifestations, graphics on the glass to make people aware of the glazing, often these are dull dots or lines. We researched the River Thames, and found reference for all the wildlife that lives above, in or under the water: birds, insects, fish. And we discovered that early eighteenth century lightermen had unique bollards to tie up their barges. In this way the glazed building both literally and metaphorically reflects the nearby river.

PASSING TIME

Houses of Parliament, London Julian Bicknell & Associates

The sundial marks out the hours and days of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, celebrating five decades of the Jubilee; through five rings, one from each of the four countries of her kingdom, with a bright central sun’.

Outer ring

Kenmay white-grey granite from Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Second ring

Mourne Glen pink granite from County Down, Ireland

Third ring

Kirkstone silver-grey slate from Cumbria, England

Fourth ring

Trefor silver-grey granite from Gwynedd, Wales

Inner-most ring

Bronze alloy, the Sun

Atelier won a competition to design a sundial as a gift to Queen Elizabeth II from the Houses of Parliament; for her Golden Jubilee: fifty years as monarch. It sits on the north side of Old Palace Yard, opposite Richard the Lion Heart. Dr Frank King, chronologist of Cambridge University, helped us to calculate the underpinning geometry of an analemmatic sundial for the site. An analemmatic sundial uses a person standing on the flat dial as the ‘gnomon’, the person casts a shadow which lies across the hour markings. It is, in effect, a human clock.

Sheffield City Council wanted a highly visible set of signs to “improve the user experience of the city, its places and spaces”. The main wayfinding device is a freestanding totem, which features panoramic photography showing the streetscape in front of the sign, avoiding dozens of arrows, and reinforcing the sense of place. Diagrammatic maps provide very detailed navigation over a wider area. The modular system extends upwards from what is legible at eye-level, to incorporate clocks and super-graphics visible at great distance.

Shalesmoor Kelham Island

Clock

Location and city area

Photograph annotated with wayfinding and interpretative text

Orientated 700 metre map section. Main wayfinding device with pedestrian 5 minute walk circle

Orientated City Diagram –a reduced plan of the city with key transport interchanges and city zones