The Importance of Wayfinding In Your Business Signage
Wayfinding is an essential part of your business facility and branding and can be so much more than directional signage.
Whenever your clients enter a building, they have to make immediate decisions. While they may have an idea as to the general location of where they are going, wayfinding guides them through a form of spatial problem-solving.
![]()
Wayfinding Basics
Wayfinding is a comprehensive process developed to familiarize people in a physical space and provide directional assistance to get from point A to point B. Messages presented on wayfinding signage minimize a visitor’s natural confusion when navigating a new and unfamiliar facility.
Simply put, an efficient and effective wayfinding system should answer three questions: ‘Where am I?’ ‘Where is my destination?’ and ‘How do I get from here to there?’
What began as a simple system of signs with arrows on them to point people in the direction of their destination, wayfinding has now evolved to become user-focused, technology-driven and highly integrated information systems.
Wayfinding Solutions
And beyond the obvious goal of helping people to find their way, effective wayfinding systems play several other important roles, especially in high-stress and high-traffic environments, such as hotels, airports, public spaces, museums, hospitals, and libraries. Because not only are these systems practical, but they can also provide unique guest experiences and serve to foster an understanding of any given space.
Beyond creating a unique guest experience, wayfinding helps keep businesses up-to-date with the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) and local accessibility regulations in order to craft successful and compliant signage design systems.
Wayfinding systems can come in many forms, from signs and maps to digital touch-screen devices. Further, certain innovations have developed over the last few years, such as the colored lines running along hallways in hospitals to lead the way to certain departments.
Wayfinding Applications
Creative’s custom wayfinding project case studies showcase examples of what Creative can do for wayfinding and design.
- Municipalities: Creative Sign Designs was selected from a qualifying bid process by the City of Tallahassee to undertake the branding of its new social center, Cascades Park. Creative Sign Designs teamed up with Blueprint 2000, who worked closely with the City of Tallahassee, in a design/build venture to construct wayfinding signage for the new park.
- Museums & Galleries: The Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa, Florida is adorned with eye-catching back-lit channel letters from Creative Sign Designs that complement the museum’s overall aesthetic and make it stand-out in the booming downtown area.
- Theaters: The David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, a landmark in Tampa, FL, is situated in the hub of the growing cultural arts district. This theater is easily visible from nearby highways and throughout downtown thanks to the eye-catching custom LED signage on the exterior of the building. Creative collaborated with the Straz Center and the Toppe Consultants to consult, design, fabricate and install the custom signage and LED channel letters as part of the building’s rebranding.
Wayfinding is ubiquitous – though often subtly so – and proves essential for navigating a wide variety of environments. Designed with careful thought and planning to develop a system to meet the demands of a particular space, custom wayfinding signage by Creative understands space relations while incorporating eye-catching design elements to make a lasting impression.
Schedule a consultation today to find out how you can create a unique guest experience through wayfinding with the experts at Creative Sign Designs.
