The Railyard Wayfinding & Signage Sytstem
Contents 0.1
The Location
0.2
Current Signage Exterior Problems Identified Interior Problems Identified
0.3
Proposed Signage System
0.4
Wayfinding System Proposed Wayfinding Map
0.5
Signage Specifications Exterior Monolithic & Wall Mount Signs Interior Wall Mount Signs Interior Room Door Signs Interior Vinyl Signs Material Usage: Wall Mounted Signs Colour Palette Typography
0.1 The Location
The railyard, located at the heart of CB1, consists of three different buildings; segregated on two streets. This student accommodation, as suggested by the name, is adjacent to Cambridge’s train station, also being one of the main landmarks, in order to locate the Railyard. The Stephenson Building is located on Station Place. This building ends at the intersection between Station Place and Brookgate. The Brunel building is placed at the beginning of Brookgate road, and behind it is where the Telford Building is located.
0.2 Current Signage
Exterior
The current signage used by The Railyard, consists of wall mounted sign boards and suspended signs. The external signs are made of stainless steel however, the mounted sign for the reception, is made of stainless steel and polycarbonate, as an LED light sheet has been placed behind the sign to illuminate it. The suspended signs are used to identify the different blocks in the Stephenson Building as well as inside the entrance for the Brunel and Telfod buildings. The signs were suspended from inside the glass doors, by titanium cables and used a chemical etching process to create the text. Using a sans – serif typeface created legibility at a distance, the typeface used was also bold enough to withstand a variety of fabrication techniques: the font will be used for signage purposes and would be etched in to stainless steel.
Problems Identified The Railyard provides cycle storeage for residents. Signage used for the cycle stores have either a suspended aluminium sign or a sign created using a sticker. It is worth nothing that the glass doors have a large cycle vinyl sticker which distrupt the current signage placement. For one particular block in the Stephenson building two suspended signs appeared
within the same window, this makes the area appear cluttered, ideally, there should have been one sign indicating the two different rooms; ‘Laundry’ & ‘Common Room’ aided with the use of directional arrows.
Interior
The internal wayfinding system that is compiled by The Railyard consists of wall mounted signs, all made of toughened silicone. These signs also use the same sans-serif font present in the external signage system. Each floor consists of two mounted signs, one to specify the floor number, and the other to identify the facilities or flat rooms that are located on that floor. In addition to these signs, each floor also consists of the emergency precautions, such as fire exist routes, and signs that inform residents or visitors that the lifts mustn’t be used during a fire. The yellow being used for the signs, catch people’s attentions and also make the information on them stand out much more. It also adds more vibrancy to the plain white walls behind them.
Problems Identified The wayfinding system for the Brunel Building has designing faults to them. One fault is the alignment and placment of every sign – except for the 2nd and -1 floors, the wall mounted signs identifying the flat rooms are placed too close to the edge of the wall and are placed where it is unnoticeable when just leaving the elevator or entering through the stairs, making it difficult for
residents of visitors to identify what floor they are on, what flat rooms or facilities that are located on the floor they choose to go to. This is also due to the fact that the building is shaped in such a way, that it is difficult to keep a standard placement. Further on with this problem, is that the precautionary signs have all been placed too closely together in the same area,
making it look very clustered and disorganised. Also the cycle store indication is misleading, since the ground floor mounted sign states that the cycle store is located in -1 along with the laundry room and bin store; whereas the cycle store is located outside the building.
0.3 Proposed Signage System
The aim of the new signage system is to create a more legible one, to enhance the understanding of the location by having a simpler and well interpreted wayfinding. Inspired mainly by the interior design complied by the Railyard, by making abstract designs and using a vibrant colour scheme, changing the whole outcome of the signage system, while still keeping it looking positive and unique, in order to create a good signage system for a student accommodation.
0.4 Wayfinding Map
The map also includes the Cambridge Train station as it is a landmark known to many, alongside this all roads that lead towards The Railyard have also been identified to allow users to easily find their way to the building.
The wayfinding map will help people navigate their way around as well as understand and engage with The Railyard premises. The Railyard premises is identified with three different tones of organe whilst the stars pinpoint the entry and exist points for each building.
Proposed Wayfinding Map
0.5 Signage Specifications
Exterior Monolithic & Wall Mount Signs
160 cm
170 cm
200 cm
230 cm
A detailed summary of the height of the signs against the height of an average adult (5’5ft)..Each sign is at a height where they can be easily seen by the viewer and would not affect the view of the surrounding environment.
70 cm
40 cm
40 cm
Exterior Monolithic & Wall Mount Signs
230 cm
200 cm
70 cm
40 cm
Exterior Monolithic & Wall Mount Signs
Both the monolithic signs and wall mounted signs would be made of flat aluminium panels with the text chemically etched onto the surface. Using aluminium will improve the the durabilty of the sign and will withstand various weather elements when compared to other materials. Aluminium will not rust and can be sprayed with paint to match any custom color. Its weight and sturdiness make it ideal an outdoor signage material, it can also be cut to any size which will allow for the unqiue shape of the monolithic signs and is available in a variety of thicknesses.
Wall
230 cm
Aluminium Panel
The exterior monolithic signs will be mounted onto a concreate block that will be fixed into the ground.
30cm
Stainless steel standoff screws
The etxterior wall mounts that identify each block will be mounted on to the pillars using stainless stress standoff screws, where the aluminium panel will be placed inbetween the screws. that are infront of the doors.
70 cm
Interior Wall Mount Signs
60 cm
200 cm
The wayfind system aims to allow tenants and visitors to navigate their way around The Railyard premises with ease. As the buildings all consited of five floors a useful concept to use was colour coding which then removed any confusion between each floor.
60 cm
60 cm
Interior Room Door Signs
30 cm
210 cm
Each room door number is colour coded to match the floor, this allows the tentant or vistor to easily identify which floor they are on.
30 cm
90 cm
1st Floor
2nd Floor
3rd Floor
4th Floor
5th Floor
Basement (Bin Store & Laundry)
210 cm
170 cm
210 cm
210 cm
Interior Vinyl Signs
90 cm
90 cm
90 cm
Material Usage: Wall Mounted Signs
The signs used to indicate the floor number and the direction towards the given flat rooms numbers and stairs, consist of three different pieces, that combine together to form the entire sign. Each of these pieces are made up of toughened silicone that has dovetailed aluminium extrusions places behind them, in order to align a metal mocking strip that would be used to mount onto the wall, making it look like it has been stuck onto the walls. The text will be printed onto the toughened silicone with black ink. The mounted signs that would be placed on each flat room door, will also be made of toughened silicone, with the same dovetailed aluminium extrusions, where the metal mocking strip would be placed to mount on to the wooden doors
Material Usage: Vinyl Signs
Flat Entrance
Room Door
Cleaners Cuboard
Cycle Store
The buttons on the lift will have vinyl colour coded stickers, this will allow tentents andvistors to easily identify what floor they want to go, the colours are also seen in the ground floor sign that appears just outside the lift. The doors leading towards the flat rooms will consist of a vinyl sticker that will be stuck on the bottom of the doors, complying withsimilar abstract shapes. However, the sticker will have to be modified, due to the glass panel within the door.
Launderette & Bin store Flat Entrance
Colour Palette
Pantone 3295 C
Pantone 7473 C
Pantone 7472 C
Pantone 1665 C
Pantone 158 C
Pantone 157 C
CMYK: 100 22 57 06
CMYK: 80 10 45 00
CMYK: 53 04 32 00
CMYK: 05 81 100 01
CMYK: 04 68 99 00
CMYK: 03 47 79 00
Pantone 193 C
Pantone 198 C
Pantone 197 C
Pantone 7462 C
Pantone 7459 C
Pantone 7458 C
CMYK: 17 100 76 07
CMYK: 07 85 46 00
CMYK: 04 48 17 00
CMYK: 100 66 24 06
CMYK: 81 34 11 00
CMYK: 55 13 13 00
Pantone 143 C
Pantone 141 C
Pantone 1215 C
Pantone 3405 C
Pantone 360 C
Pantone 358 C
CMYK: 04 34 93 00
CMYK: 05 19 71 00
CMYK: 02 11 60 00
CMYK: 100 00 83 00
CMYK: 76 02 100 00
CMYK: 39 00 60 00
Pantone 512 C
Pantone 513 C
Pantone 197 C
CMYK: 60 100 24 09
CMYK: 52 99 05 01
CMYK: 04 48 17 00
The colour scheme of the wayfing system is based on the number of floors. Each colour identifies a different floor within the building. The use of bright and contrastin colours that differ from their surroundings stand out and attract attention more effectively than colors that are similar to their surroundings.
Typography
The typeface to be used all through the wayfindingsignage system is Century Gothic. Using only the regular weight at various sizes. Century Gotic is a sans – serif typeface making it suitable for signage as it is easy to read. As it is a geometric typeface
and clear and it suitable for children, which is most important as children are the main visitors to the zoo so the typeface would need to be well spaced out and defined that they can easily read it.
Century Gothic: Regular abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890
Desgined By: Akshay Shah Email: akshay.shah@student.anglia.ac.uk