Case studies

from Making it home: Creating a hospitable landscape

by Landscape, the journal of the Landscape Institute

Newhaven’s Wayfinding and Signage Spatial Masterplan

The overarching concept of Legible London was that ‘the city should put a sublime arm around you and say welcome’. This legacy has led to many developments in signage and mapmaking designed to welcome the visitor. This selection of case studies illustrates current approaches.

Darkhorse Design

Founded in 2005, Darkhorse Design is a full service communications agency and content publisher specialising in the built and natural environment.

St Helens Council

The Dream site in St Helens was one of seven chosen from over 1,400 publicly nominated locations for the Channel 4 series The Big Art Project. Working alongside artist Jaume Plensa and local focus groups, Darkhorse created a visual wayfinding system including striking black-and-white imagery to reflect a dream-like state. The site was reimagined to create a sense of local ownership and place with planet positive fabrication of signs using locally reclaimed and repurposed material where possible. Digital aspects include on-site signage with downloadable audio guides, plus augmented reality which is used on-site to show the original mine shafts; visitors can look through their camera phones and watch as the mine shafts appear, transporting the viewer back in time to the working Sutton Manor Colliery.

United Utilities

A wayfinding and interpretation system was required across thousands of acres of regularly used United Utilities land with supporting communications collateral to encourage safe and responsible enjoyment of the countryside. Highlighted points of interest on the maps are brought alive by accessible 3D illustrations that attract attention to the key destination points, and a colour coded system is applied to walks for different audiences. Innovative and sustainable cost-effective signage, sympathetic to their individual surroundings and usage, were plotted across the sites providing local information as well as public safety and awareness messages. Joint venture project between Darkhorse and Sundog Creative.

Bury Council

The Irwell Sculpture Trail, which spans over 33 miles, is the UK’s longest public art trail. It features over 70 artworks by local, national and international artists in rural and urban settings. Its aim is to connect various aspects of the Irwell Valley, its people, its heritage, its parks and countryside using artworks in the environment. We developed a brand strategy following extensive research in both local communities and the tourism marketplace. This cultural project required the delivery of a family of accessible signage to work across a range of locations with varying environmental considerations covering demographically different user requirements. On-site digital interpretation is available with a website providing interactive and downloadable maps, QR codes, mobile apps, on-site audio guides, and sustainably printed seasonal visitor guides.

Steer

An infrastructure and transport consultancy. The core areas that define the practice are place, identity and movement.

Toronto Natural Environment Trails

Toronto’s forested ravines and natural trails are well-loved and heavily used. As trail usage increases, so do the pressures on these areas, alongside user expectations for wayfinding. In response, the City of Toronto engaged Steer to develop a custom information system specifically suited for the needs of its trails and its users on foot and bike. The system combines wayfinding, interpretation, trail rules/etiquette, and emergency safety instructions into a simple, durable, and cost-effective system of panels mounted to timber posts.

See Paddington

The canal side around Paddington Basin suffers from a lack of visibility, coherence and sense of place. The Paddington Partnership commissioned Steer and Jedco to address these issues. The outcome was See Paddington – a coordinated package of interventions in the form of perforated steel panels that graphically integrate locally inspired stories and public art derived from Paddington’s heritage, community and nature to create a narrative trail linking key gateways with the canal between Bishop’s Bridge Road and South Wharf Road.

**Interpretive panels and painted mural**
© Steer

Toronto 360

Toronto’s TO360 wayfinding strategy supports walking as the connecting mode that enables multi-modal transportation in the city. TO360 provides information for pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and motorists through unified signage and mapping. Steer has supported the City of Toronto since 2011 in the preparation and delivery of the system. After successful evaluation of the 2015 Financial District pilot, the project is now being rolled out citywide by the City of Toronto and its project partners including BikeShare, TTC and Metrolinx.

Bankside

Southwark Council and TfL launched a competition to address pedestrian conditions on Lavington Street as part of Bankside Urban Forest. In response, Steer designed a new modular product that enabled widening of the narrow footways to allow more space for people on foot, with buggies or in wheelchairs and accommodate a cycle contraflow. This innovative product demonstrates how streets can be rapidly reconfigured to respond to changing pressures, accommodate increased footfall and support safe movement around construction sites or roadworks.

City-ID

Information and wayfinding solutions to integrate people, movement and places.

WalkNYC

WalkNYC was designed to help the 8.5mn residents and 50mn visitors a year to walk, bike and use public transit by providing new types of information and a standardised system of parts. It provides an intuitive, legible and extendible information system with an elegant family of products, robust design standards and a confident visual identity, all inspired by New York City and its iconic Subway system.

The project continues to expand above ground and below with the renovation of NYC Subway system as part of the New York City Transit Enhanced Station Initiative.

Interconnect Birmingham

Interconnect Birmingham is a partnership and framework initiated in 2006 by Marketing Birmingham (now West Midlands Growth Company) within which infrastructure and design for Birmingham’s city centre streetscape is being evolved and improved, with a focus on people, their journey, interaction and activity. Interconnect delivers an integrated pedestrian wayfinding and transport information system through an innovative research-led approach, focused on improving experiences for residents and visitors of the West Midlands. The mapping and products were updated across the city centre in readiness for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.