Signage
Signage (from French signalétique , German identifying ) is used for spatial orientation of people in a complex building or area such as an airport , a train station , a larger office building or a school .
For a good signage system, various aspects such as architecture , design , color theory , psychology , sensory perception and cultural imprint must be taken into account.
history
The first known example of applied signage in public space was the color coding system developed by Max Burchartz in the Hans-Sachs-Haus in Gelsenkirchen in the 1920s . The system influenced by the Bauhaus , here named Johannes Itten in the theory of colors and Hinnerk Scheper color designer and wall painter, led through the building with large areas of color in primary colors . After being completely painted over in the period after World War II, it was partially reconstructed in the 1990s. However, when the building was rebuilt around 2010, the reconstruction was also destroyed.
Applications
The typographer Adrian Frutiger developed writings as the Univers and Frutiger , which are successfully used worldwide in control systems because of their high readability.
The graphic artist Otl Aicher developed primarily of pictograms existing signage of the 1972 Summer Olympics of Munich . Some of the symbols that represent all Olympic sports in a very simple and understandable way are still in use today.
In addition to a color coding system, the designers Anton Stankowski and Rolf Müller developed "an overall design with accompanying steles (stankograms), signs, floor numbers and other information elements" for the town house in Bonn .
In 1996, 17 people died in a major fire at Düsseldorf Airport . Not least, unclear signs and a lack of information on escape routes were to blame. For the newly designed airport, the German graphic designer Erik Spiekermann developed a guidance system that is supposed to guarantee security through a high level of comprehensibility.
The Dutch graphic artist Paul Mijksenaar developed control systems for Schiphol Airport and for the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York . His work is considered a prime example of modern and functional control systems.
Orientation design
Signage is used in the still young design discipline of orientation design , which deals with user-related guidance.
Signage as amok prevention in schools
More and more schools in Germany have recently been equipped with color coding systems, which the designer Dejan Pavlovic has been developing and supervising since 2009. In addition to the orientation aid for students, teachers, parents and non-school students, this system is intended to help the police , fire brigade and other rescue workers to quickly find the specific location within the school in the event of an emergency such as a rampage or fire .
Past rampages and other rescue missions in schools had repeatedly shown that the orientation of emergency services in foreign schools proves to be quite difficult. This is and was in particular due to angled corridors and different building complexes, but also to inconsistent room numbers and floor names that at first glance do not seem logical for non-school students, such as a main entrance that leads to the first floor. Furthermore, the room markings on the equipped schools are also located inside the room on the door, so that an effective emergency call can be made to people within the room.
Delimitations
A road traffic control system is not part of the teaching of signage, because the latter requires that it can be interpreted and understood without prior knowledge. In the case of traffic signals , this requirement is not met because every road user has to learn and know the various signals and their meaning. However, a parking guidance system can meet the condition of free interpretability.
Although signage can also make use of screens and projector presentations , the term digital signage primarily describes more complex presentation techniques of networked (audio) visual information systems, the content of which is program-controlled and partly interactive, and which can be used for didactics at exhibitions or, for example, represent infotainment .
literature
- Erwin Bauer, Dieter Mayer: Orientation & Identity - Portraits of international signage systems , Springer, New York, 2008, ISBN 978-3-211-79189-9 .
- Philipp Meuser (ed.): Signs and pictograms . Manual and planning aid, DOM Publ., Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86922-025-3 .
- Andreas Uebele : Orientation systems and signage. A planning manual for architects, product designers and communication designers , Schmidt, Mainz 2006, ISBN 978-3-87439-674-5 . (Engl.) Translated as Signage systems & information graphics. A professional sourcebook , Thames & Hudson, London 2007, ISBN 0-500-51379-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Website of the Stankowski Foundation
- ↑ ANDREA ROST: Main-Taunus: Color leads the police. In: fr-online.de . September 18, 2009, accessed December 18, 2014 .
- ↑ www.axel-wintermeyer.de