NO. 06, 2013
NO. 06, 2013
eg ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS MAGAZINE WWW.SEGD.ORG
ART NOUVEAU SUE GOULD
SEGD GLOBAL DESIGN AWARDS
2013 SEGD FELLOW
REST STOP SKETCHBOOK RENAISSANCE KEN CARBONE
Society for Environmental Graphic Design A multidisciplinary community creating experiences that connect people to place
SEGD Board of Directors President Senior Vice President Vice President Treasurer
D IN OSAUR HA LL, N AT URA L H I STORY M US E UM OF LOS A N G ELES CO U N TY
IT’S NICE TO BE R E CO G N I Z E D CONGRATULATIONS + THANK YOU TO ALL OUR AWARD-WINNING PROJECT PARTNERS
Amy Lukas, Infinite Scale, Salt Lake City Jill Ayers, Design360, New York Edwin Hofmann, Limited Brands, New York Mark VanderKlipp, Corbin, Traverse City, Mich.
Patrick Angelel, CREO Industrial Arts, Everett, Wash. Sander Baumann, designworkplan.com, Amsterdam Steve Bayer, Daktronics, Brookings, S.D. Richard Bencivengo, Lexington Design + Fabrication, Pacoima, Calif. Jennifer Bressler, Hunt Design, Pasadena, Calif. Peter Dixon, Prophet, New York Oscar Fernández (Ex Officio), University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Moira Gemmill (Ex Officio), V&A Museum, London Cynthia Hall (Ex Officio), Studio SC, Seattle J. Graham Hanson, Graham Hanson Design, New York Lonny Israel, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, San Francisco Alan Jacobson, ex;it, Philadelphia John Lutz, Selbert Perkins Design, Chicago Wayne McCutcheon (Past President), Entro/G+A, Toronto Bryan Meszaros, OpenEye, South Amboy, N.J. Stephen Minning, BrandCulture Communications, Sydney Dan Moalli, Obscura Digital, Brooklyn, N.Y. Steven Stamper, fd2s, Austin, Texas Gary Stemler, archetype, Minneapolis, Minn. Tucker Trotter, Dimensional Innovations, Overland Park, Kan. Julie Vogel, Kate Keating Associates, San Francisco Leslie Wolke, Leslie Wolke Consulting, Austin, Texas Alexandra Wood, Holmes Wood, London Joe Zenas, Thinkwell, Burbank, Calif.
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Atlanta Lynne Bernhardt, lynne@sbs-architecture.com Stephen Carlin, stevecarlin@coopercarry.com Boston Michele Phelan, michele@96pt.com David Spatara, wentworth_2003@yahoo.com Brisbane, Australia Jack Bryce, jack@jackbryce.com Charlotte, NC Kevin Kern, kkern@505design.com Scott Muller, smuller@poblocki.com Chicago Kyle Skunta, kskunta@selbertperkins.com Cincinnati Jeff Waggoner, jeffwaggoner@fuse.net Cleveland Cathy Fromet, cathy@studiographique.com Denver George Lim, george@tangramdesignllc.com Angela Serravo, angela@tangramdesignllc.com Edinburgh Lucy Richards, lr@studiolr.com Kansas City Rick Smith, rsmith@dimin.com Minneapolis Adam Halverson, adamh@serigraphicssign.com Jese Yungner, yungner@visualcomm.com New York Rachel Einsidler, einsidler.r@design360inc.com Anthony Ferrara, anthony@designconcernus.com Anna Sharp, asharp@twotwelve.com Philadelphia Stephen Bashore, sbashore@cloudgehshan.com Ian Goldberg, igoldberg@cloudgehshan.com San Diego Chris McCampbell, chris@kathydavisassociates.com San Francisco Lauren Kelly, lauren@laurenkelly.com Seattle Cynthia Hall, chall@studio-sc.com Toronto Cynthia Damar-Schnobb, cynthia@entro.com Andrew Kuzyk, andrew@entro.com Vancouver Danielle Lindsay-Chung, danielle.lindsaychung@gmail.com Daniela Pilossof, daniela.pilossof@gmail.com Washington, D.C. Jeffrey Wotowiec, jwotowiec@cannondesign.com
Publisher Clive Roux, CEO Editor-in-Chief Pat Matson Knapp pat@segd.org Executive Editor Ann Makowski Founding Editor Leslie Gallery Dilworth Design Wayne-William Creative Contributors Ken Carbone, Sue Gould, Jenny S. Reising, Leslie Wolke Executive and Editorial Offices 1000 Vermont Ave., NW Suite 400 Washington, D.C. 20005 202.638.5555 www.segd.org
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eg magazine is the international journal of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design. Opinions expressed editorially and by contributors are not necessarily those of SEGD. Advertisements appearing in eg magazine do not constitute or imply endorsement by SEGD or eg magazine. Material in this magazine is copyrighted. Photocopying for academic purposes is permissible, with appropriate credit. eg magazine is published four times a year by SEGD Services Corp. Periodical postage paid at York, Penn., USA, and additional mailing offices.
NO. 06, 2013
eg ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS MAGAZINE
Editorial, Subscriptions, Reprints, Back Issues 202.638.5555 segd@segd.org
The SEGD Global Design Awards are always a treat to browse through, and represent the most-visited area of the SEGD website—year round! Winning an award ensures you get exposure from the great traffic we get to SEGD.com. Promoting excellence in environmental graphic design is an important part of SEGD’s mission and, as always, our 2013 jury passionately debated what “excellent” means. It is always a balance between aesthetic values and other aspects of success, such as how well the project met client goals or solved a business problem. Exactly where the balance is forms the topic of much debate every year. Observing the jury process is always fascinating, as you watch the consensus forming around strong ideas and designs. It is not a 1+1 = 2 conversation, but rather a subjective discussion about the nature of excellence and a rigorous, collective examination of the elements of a design and the emotional responses they evoke. Our multidisciplinary jury, chaired by Joe Zenas of Thinkwell, came to this conclusion: “Exceptional design is solutions- as well as communications-driven and connects people to places in memorable ways.” For the 2014 SEGD Global Design Awards program, we’ll introduce new category awards so that we can enable practitioners in the various areas of EGD to be represented in their specific areas of practice. This will also provide SEGD with a broader group of award winners to help promote the breadth of EGD work, for while one of our mandates is to encourage and recognize design excellence, another is to grow awareness about the huge role that environmental graphic design plays not only in improving the quality of life in an increasingly complex world, but in meeting defined client goals and criteria. By expanding the breadth and scope of our design awards, we’ll represent an even broader swath of design excellence and effectiveness. Speaking of an increasingly complex world, make sure to check out the fantastic Xlab 2013 event coming up October 24 in New York (see xlab2013.segd.org). XLab 2013 will move the conversation from interesting stand-alone digital EGD projects to exploration of the systems, interactions, and experiences that will ultimately become the “Internet of Places.” Enjoy reading about the 2013 SEGD Global Design Award winners. We hope they’ll educate and inspire you as much as they have us.
NO. 06, 2013
Advertising Sales Sara Naegelin 202.489.8977 sara@segd.org
What is Excellence?
ART NOUVEAU SUE GOULD
SEGD GLOBAL DESIGN AWARDS
2013 SEGD FELLOW
REST STOP SKETCHBOOK RENAISSANCE KEN CARBONE
On the cover: The Buchanan Courtyard Pavilion at the University of British Columbia is a visual expression of what it means to study arts at the college. The design by PUBLIC: Architecture + Communication is a winner in the 2013 SEGD Global Design Awards program. See story, page 17.
Clive Roux CEO
eg magazine — 3
CONTENTS
2 FEATURES (17)
Connecting People to Place 1 UP FRONT (8)
Found
Reinventing the rest stop (10)
Review
Martin Treu’s Signs, Streets, and Storefronts (12)
Out There
APCO’s Imagine and 3M’s environmentally friendly film
4 — eg magazine
Winners in the 2013 SEGD Global Design Awards range from hospital wayfinding to art gallery exhibitions, but they all share a common goal. (18)
Rivers Run Through It
Architecture, environmental graphics, and landscape harmonize to brand a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Seattle. (24)
Art Nouveau
The Cleveland Museum of Art uses digital experiences to reach out to new audiences.
3 INSPIRATION (28)
Scouts Honor
The home of the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree gets a sustainable and utilitarian signage and wayfinding system. (32)
Nature and Nurture
At a Portland children’s hospital, natureinspired architecture, art, and EGD promote healing and create positive distractions. (40)
Merit Awards (59)
Jury Award
(62)
A Life by Design
2013 SEGD Fellow Sue Gould: industrial designer, EGD pioneer, mentor, and role model (68)
Sketchbook
The sketchings of Ken Carbone: “5,000 pages of beginnings” (72)
Tomorrow’s Architect
Mark Foster Gage says, “The modernists had steel and the elevator. Our generation’s innovation is digital.”
eg magazine — 5
2013 eg SPONSORS AND PATRONS
Our sincere thanks to these companies for their support of eg magazine.
Lead Sponsors Pentagram
Patrons C&G Partners Donovan/Green Infinite Scale JACQZ Co. Kate Keating Associates Tracy Turner Design
Sponsors Robert Probst APCO Graphics Applied Image Hunt Design Selbert Perkins Design fd2s
For information about sponsorship, contact sara@segd.org
THANK YOU TO OUR 2013 SEGD PROGRAM PARTNERS 3A Composites
Color-Ad
Magna Sign International
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AGI
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Matthews Paint
AgiLight
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Nova Polymers
Airpark Signs & Graphics
Electrosonic
Primodize
Akzo Nobel Coatings
Federal Heath Sign
Principle Group
Alpolic Mitsubishi Plastics Composites America
FSG
Sansi North America
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GraphTec
SignComp
Harmon Sign
Systeme Huntingdon
The Icon Companies
TFN Architectural Signage
Insight Lighting
Unified Field
iZone
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American Signcrafters APCO Sign Systems Arlon Graphics Arsenal Media Bitro Group Big Apple Visual Group Color-Ad Inc. Colite International
LEDCONN Lucite International MACtac
Winsor Fireform
UP FRONT (8)
Found
Reinventing the rest stop (10)
Review
Martin Treu’s Signs, Streets, and Storefronts (12)
Out There
APCO’s Imagine and 3M’s environmentally friendly film
FOUND
SECTION TITLE
Gotta Go Some things are universal. No matter where you’re traveling—Germany, the U.S., or Australia—the glow of a rest stop in the distance is one of the most beautiful and welcoming sights in the world. Working for the German state of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony), Büro Uebele (Stuttgart) created a new prototype for motorway toilets that also relieves the monotony of the road. Bright Resopal laminate panels feature digital imagery of the landscape visualized as a map, a different color for each altitude level. At each of about 12 rest stops so far, the graphic facades depict the topography of the specific location—and in a way that makes graffiti redundant. (Client: Staatliches Baumangement Weser-Leine. Büro Uebele team: Benjamin Brinkmann, Angela Klasar, Katrin Theile, Andreas Uebele. Architect: Gruppeomp Architektengesellschaft mbH. Photos: Christian Richters)
8 — eg magazine
33 Parkgate Road in Battersea, London, is a former Victorian dairy now emerging as a cultural hub for the neighborhood. In addition to hosting the London studio of ALL Design and several other media and design companies, it is home to a whisky distillery, a boxing gym, a slow food kitchen, an Arabic art gallery, Doodle Bar, and experimental arts space Testbed1. In short, it’s a hotspot for cultural experimentation. ALL Design’s wayfinding echoes the building’s one-of-a-kind vibe. Crisp white rectangular directional signs stand out against old brick walls like a fragile new art proposition, yet they are crafted in sturdy fiberglass. The arrow-cum-speech bubble directory sign at the entrance to the site is illuminated with LEDs. Slightly aloof yet engaging, it is also a welcoming invitation to passers-by.
DNUOF
On the Bubble
(Client: Curatus. Designer: Borja Goyarrola. Modelling: Ben Davidson. CGI studies: Seb Andraos. Photos: Pepe Baena)
eg magazine — 9
REVIEW
Placemaking on Main Street Signs, Streets, and Storefronts: A History of Architecture and Graphics Along America’s Commercial Corridors By Martin Treu Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012
The lines between architecture and advertising have long been blurred, and architect/author/urbanist Martin Treu traces their intertwined journey in his new book Signs, Streets, and Storefronts. Treu’s book is a graphic examination of the rich and storied history of America’s commercial corridors. He takes on more than 200 years of signs and place-marking along America’s roadways, from the classic vertical inn signs of the 1750s to the showy illuminated signs of the Great White Way and the new generation of signs designed for viewing from automobiles. Treu says the book began as a photographic documentation and evolved into a richly illustrated, highly conceptual examination of the forces that have influenced the appearance of commercial streets and highways, including sign technology and
graphic styles, zoning and building codes, architectural taste, and patterns of settlement across the country. The book features archival photographs by the author and text filled with insights gained from more than a decade of research on the streets and highways of America and the forces that define them. “As an environmental graphic designer and an architect, this is a book I’ve been wanting to see for a very long time,” says Treu. “It examines not only how sign design has evolved over the years, but studies the ever-changing relationship between graphics and architectural design. It’s been a labor of love.” The book was sponsored by the Graham Foundation. In early 2013, it received a Prose Award from the Association of American Publishers, one of only three given to works on architecture and design.
“ It examines not only how sign design has evolved over the years, but studies the everchanging relationship between graphics and architectural design. It’s been a labor of love.”
10 — eg magazine
Ideas for a book, website, exhibit, or space review? Contact pat@segd.org
The Designer Says: Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom Compiled and edited by Sara Bader Princeton Architectural Press, 2013 Jennifer Morla always investigates black and white before experimenting with color. Alvin Lustig thought the term “graphic designer” was too limiting. Paula Scher gambles when she designs. And Abbott Miller compares typography to catnip. In this compendium of quotes, designers speak on topics ranging from authenticity (Michael Bierut and Edward Tufte) to collecting money from clients and the importance of doing crossword puzzles. Bader maintains Quotenik.com.
The City at Eye Level: Lessons for Street Plinths By Meredith Glaser, et al. Eburon, 2012
Type Only Edited by Tony Brook, Claudia Klat, and Adrian Shaughnessy Unit Editions, 2013
The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design By Lance Hosey Island Press, 2012
Rotterdam/Amsterdambased urban planning firm Stipo B.V. released this book—available for free via www. thecityateyelevel. com—to add to the conversation about the concepts, philosophies, and strategies behind planning the ground floors of urban environments. A collaboration of five editors and 47 contributors around the world (including SEGD member Samar Héchaimé), the book includes interviews and case studies highlighting best practices in cities such as Copenhagen, Antwerp, San Francisco, and Rotterdam.
Type Only celebrates a current trend in contemporary typography: type unsupported by illustration or photography. In other words, typography and letterforms on their own. Through the work of 100 graphic designers from around the world, Type Only explores the communicative and emotive power of type when used in isolation. In the introductory essay, Mark Sinclair, deputy editor of Creative Review, provides an overview of how typography has evolved from the early “type only” experiments of the Dadaists and Futurists, to Modernism and Post-Modernism, to today’s radical typographic trends, digitally made and shared instantly on the Internet.
Lance Hosey says beauty can save the planet. In what he says is the first book to outline a clear set of principles for the aesthetics of sustainable design, the president and CEO of the nonprofit GreenBlue (and former director with William McDonough + Partners) argues that beauty is inherent to sustainability because (paraphrasing Oscar Wilde), “how things look and feel is as important as how they’re made.” He sets out to demonstrate how form and image can enhance conservation, comfort, and community at every scale of design, from products to buildings to cities. “Aesthetic attraction isn’t a superficial concern— it’s an environmental imperative.”
Graphic Design in Architecture Design Media Publishing Limited, 2011 This is a 430-page, seven-pound picture book chock full of the best environmental graphic design projects in the world. It’s a visual survey of the works of SEGD firms like Pentagram, Calori & Vanden-Eynden, Holmes Wood, GNU Group, fd2s, Square Peg Design, Sussman/Prejza, Two Twelve, Visual Communications, and Lebowitz|Gould|Design, among many others.
eg magazine — 11
OUT THERE
A
B
C
D
Innovative materials, products & technology 12 — eg magazine
New product to share? Contact pat@segd.org.
D B
A C
Terrabilt
Duets is a new engraving stock for ADA and wayfinding signage that provides two colors for customer engraving. ABS plastic is designed for rotary engraving and is suitable only for interiors. Impactmodified acrylic is designed for laser engraving and is suited primarily for indoor use, but has options approved for exterior applications. There are 37 color combinations available for ABS and 57 for acrylic. Sheets are 1/16-in. thick and available in three sizes.
Terrabilt is a modular system of signage products made from sustainable materials using environmentally clean production processes. Signs, kiosks, and interpretive waysides are designed to enhance the visitor experience. Terrabilt encompasses both retroreflective signs for motorists and high-resolution panels for all other information needs. Sign structures and kiosks are maintenance free and vandal-resistant, says the company. A patented panel retainer system provides a convenient way to add or remove panels and optimizes graphic areas without installing bolts through the panels.
www.signletters.com
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Duets
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Imagine is APCO’s new eco-friendly, image-infused sign system that offers an extensive library of images, patterns, and profiles. Modular and easy to update, the system includes components from the slim-profile FullView and the curved-aluminum Arcadia lines. More than 10,000 unique designs can be created using the Imagine IdeaBox.
3M Envision Wrap Film 480Cv3 was recently named “Best Environmental Substrate” by the European Digital Press Association. The non-PVC wrap film is highly conformable, installs in extreme temperatures, has high tensile strength for faster removal, and offers exceptional clarity, durability, easy repositionability, and comprehensive ink compatibility, says 3M. The film’s non-PVC formula reduces issues with incineration, as no chlorine or other halogens are added during manufacturing. The films are also phthalate-free and use less solvent, and are made in part with bio-based materials.
www.apcosigns.com
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Imagine
eg magazine — 13
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FEATURES (17)
Connecting People to Place
Winners in the 2013 SEGD Global Design Awards range from hospital wayfinding to art gallery exhibitions, but they all share a common goal. (18)
Rivers Run Through It Architecture, environmental graphics, and landscape harmonize to brand a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Seattle. (24)
Art Nouveau
The Cleveland Museum of Art uses digital experiences to reach out to new audiences. (28)
Scouts Honor
The home of the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree gets a sustainable and utilitarian signage and wayfinding system. (32)
Nature and Nurture
At a Portland children’s hospital, natureinspired architecture, art, and EGD promote healing and create positive distractions. (40)
Merit Awards (59)
Jury Award
CONNECTING PEOPLETOPLACE Whether designed to guide patients and their families through a children’s hospital, make art more fun and accessible for museum visitors, or brand a government office, winning projects in the 2013 SEGD Global Design Awards are all working toward the same goal: providing experiences that connect people to place. “The 2013 jury was unanimous in its conviction that excellence in environmental graphic design is solutions- and communications-driven—and that the best projects connect people to place in memorable ways,” says Joe Zenas, CEO and Principal of experiential design company Thinkwell Group and Chair of the 2013 SEGD Global Design Awards program. The winning projects illustrate the dramatic impact that environmental graphic design has on the world—and how EGD can impact the way people perceive and use public spaces, adds Zenas. “When you look at the winning projects individually and collectively, you see how design plays a major role in our everyday lives. Our winning hospital project, for example, shows how providing information in a timely and sensitive way can not only reduce stress for visitors and patients, but actively contribute to the healing process.”
HONOR AWARD
MERIT AWARD
JURY AWARD
4
17
1 The 2013 SEGD Global Design Awards jury (clockwise from top right): Joe Zenas (Chair), Thinkwell Group; Tim McNeil, UC Davis and Muniz/McNeil; Cassie Hester, University of West Georgia and 2012 student winner; David Harvey, American Museum of Natural History; Ken Carbone, Carbone Smolan Agency; Chris Calori, FSEGD, Calori & Vanden-Eynden/Design Consultants; Phil Freelon, The Freelon Group; and Kevin Owens, owensowens.
eg magazine — 17
Federal Center South U.S. General Services Administration and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Seattle HONOR AWARD
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ mantra “Building Strong” is embodied in the primary identification sign, a 36-ft.-long, three-ton cantilevered I-beam that references the building’s exposed steel diagrid. Fabricator Trade-Marx Sign & Display plasma-cut the USACE out of the steel. The slabserif font is Lubalin. (Photo: Benjamin Benschneider Photography)
18 — eg magazine
Budget $250,000 fabrication Project Area 209,000 sq. ft. Open Date October 2012 Architecture ZGF Architects Environmental Graphic Design Studio SC Design Team Billy Chen, Mark Sanders principals in charge; Billy Chen creative director; Faith Berry designer
Fabrication Trade-Marx Sign & Display Corp. primary fabricator, Creative Metal Arts metal etching, Glass Pro laminated glass with graphic interlayer, Quiring Monuments stone engraving Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
In the lobby, a 10-ft-tall by 34-ft-long welcome wall features a Corps-brand red topographic relief of the Duwamish. A steel C-channel is used to carry dimensional text describing the Corps’ mission. LED reader boards scroll real-time water management data. (Photo: Benjamin Benschneider Photography)
RIVERS RUN THROUGH IT A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Seattle integrates architecture and environmental graphics to celebrate the region’s life-giving rivers. By Pat Matson Knapp
W
hen ZGF Architects entered the competition to design the new Seattle district headquarters for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, its inspiration was omnipresent, literally flowing past the four-acre site. ZGF won the competition with its Oxbow concept, a U-shaped footprint that mimics the historic bends in the Duwamish River and nods to the central role that rivers and waterways play in the region, and in the Corps’ mission. Inspired by the famous Thomas Cole landscape painting and its evocation of the struggle between nature and civilization, ZGF’s design reflected not only the Corps’ work on the Duwamish Waterway over many decades, but the former industrial nature of the site, which was covered with old warehouses and asphalt prior to the new construction. “Our concept was context-driven, and it celebrates the river. That’s why it resonated,” says Allyn Stellmacher, Design Partner with ZGF. To fully realize its river-centric vision, ZGF knew that additional layers of storytelling would be key, and it tapped Studio SC, a Seattle-based
environmental graphics studio, to use wayfinding and placemaking elements to underscore the focus of the Corps’ work on the rivers. Building strong The Corps’ mantra is “Building Strong,” and Studio SC took this to heart when designing the graphics and wayfinding system. It is embodied in visitors’ first impression of the site: a 36-foot-long cantilevered I-beam that serves as an identity sign and references the building’s exposed steel diagrid. “It has a strength about it that really sets the tone for the building,” says Billy Chen, Studio SC Principal and Creative Director. Just inside, a 10- by 34-foot-long red welcome wall underscores the Corps’ mission. A topographic relief of the Duwamish is overlaid with a steel C-channel that bears text describing the Corps’ mission. Several LED reader strips are embedded in the acrylic relief, scrolling real-time water management data that represents the Corps’ work at the intersection of technical data and natural resources.
ZGF Architects won the design contract in a competition sponsored by the U.S. General Services Administration. Their architectural vision mimics the historical oxbow shape of the Duwamish River that flows past the site. (Image: ZGF Architects)
eg magazine — 19
Studio SC’s wayfinding system is based on quadrants named after the Duwamish’s four parent rivers. The system is introduced at the primary vertical access, with a three-story glass graphic that climbs the side of the stairwell, providing key technical details about each of the rivers. (Photo: Benjamin Benschneider Photography)
On-course wayfinding Studio SC’s wayfinding program organizes the building into four quadrants, each named after one of the Duwamish’s four parent rivers. The system is introduced in the primary vertical access core, where a landmark three-story-tall graphic climbs the central stairwell and provides technical details about each river, such as coordinates, origin, and length. Seating areas on the first floor of each quadrant reinforce the system and its placemaking mission, featuring stories of the namesake rivers’ geologic history and significance sandblasted into granite pavers. To move employees and visitors efficiently through the building, Studio SC integrated department names and grid numbers directly onto exposed structural columns. Department names appear on magnetic-backed signs that can easily be moved when departments expand or move. “The quadrant/grid system was a language that employees already knew from their old building,” explains Chen. “So we thought it made sense to continue with that system. And it’s easy and flexible.” One of the project’s challenges, he adds, was determining the appropriate amount of wayfinding in the 209,000-square-foot space. “This is a secure building and visitors are escorted through, so the wayfinding system didn’t need to be extensively navigational, just confirmational. That’s the beauty of the landmark graphics for orientation.”
20 — eg magazine
On the other side of the stairwell, a three-story typographic spine (featuring words that express attributes of the rivers) is made of timber reclaimed from an old warehouse formerly on the site. (Photo: Lara Swimmer Photographer)
“ F ully integrates the nature and history of the facility through an engaging use of materials, color, and texture. The fabric and context of the setting are prevalent throughout. This project confidently illustrates the power of a fully coordinated and collaborative approach to the design of the built environment— architecture, graphics, wayfinding, and landscape.”
—Jury comment
The wayfinding system is straightforward and functional. Diagrid numbers are applied directly to exposed structural columns. Department signs are magnetic, allowing easy change as departments grow and move within the building.
eg magazine — 21
Graphics co-exist alongside rock outcroppings, native vegetation, and boardwalklike pathways that give the building an “inside out” connection with the natural environment.
Natural placemaking A sense of campus community is central to ZGF’s design, and the architects configured workspaces in the oxbow shape and community space in its three-story atrium core. “That is where communal activities happen, and that’s one of the key components that creates a sense of place,” says Chen. Accordingly, the Studio SC team focused many of its graphic gestures in gathering spots. In the cafés overlooking the Duwamish, graphics routed into reclaimed wood chart the river’s historic and current paths, and quotes from historical figures associated with the river provide cultural perspectives. At the heart of the building, a three-story typographic expression of the Corps’ mission is routed into reclaimed wood, honoring its unique function at the intersections of the technical and the environmental, economics and nature, and history and progress. Graphics co-exist alongside rock outcroppings, native vegetation, and boardwalk-like pathways that give the building its “inside out” connection with the natural environment.
22 — eg magazine
“This is not a building that the public visits, but hundreds of people work here and providing them with a strong sense of story and purpose was really important,” notes Chen. Design/build Federal Center South was an American Reinvestment and Recovery Act project, one of many designed to stimulate the economy post-2008, says Rick Thomas, Project Manager for the U.S. General Services Administration, owner/operator of the building and landlord to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The competition was posted in late 2009 and by late March 2010, ZGF and its partner Sellen Construction had been selected. The project launched to an aggressive design/ build schedule in July 2010 and was completed by October 2012. The GSA’s goal, in addition to quickly releasing money into the beleaguered U.S. economy, was to enhance the energy performance of the buildings in its portfolio and create a 21st century workspace that would reflect the mission of the Corps of
Engineers and encourage collaboration. As it turns out, agree Thomas, Stellmacher, and Chen, the rigor of the design/build process was especially helpful in meeting those goals. The intense collaboration required to keep the design/build process moving quickly also helped “de-silo” the project team and became a major asset in realizing the project vision, says Stellmacher. “The GSA had very defined standards in place that kept us focused on providing a high-performance building at the best value, not just the cost. The entire team had to stay very focused on the project, not on any specific member of the team. No matter who you were—engineer, architect, fabricator, graphic designer, construction manager, landscape architect—you could influence any part of the process through the constant discussion and dialogue.” Studio SC became an important voice in the conversation. Adds Stellmacher, “We had worked with them before. We knew they think outside the box and that they love to find the stories to tell.”
Along the spine that leads toward the water, Studio SC created additional placemaking elements in key gathering spots. Here, technical details about the river, and three levels of river contours, were routed into the reclaimed wood. A silkscreened metal panel with blackened mechanical fasteners provides additional interpretive information. (Photo: Lara Swimmer Photography)
Going for Gold As part of the GSA’s energy performance criteria, the project team aspired to LEED Gold certification for the building. While Chen recognizes that the materials and processes used for EGD have little impact on the overall numbers, Studio SC and the project fabricator, Trade-Marx Sign & Display, took the sustainability goals to heart. “One of our main philosophies going into the project was that we wanted everything to be as integral as possible, minimizing add-ons,” says Chen. “When we did add materials, such as the ADA signs, we tried to be as ecologically friendly as possible.” Trade-Marx sourced recycled aluminum where possible and the team used Richlite, a recycled-content, paper-composite material, for room signs. Exposed mechanical fasteners were used where possible rather than adhesives, and Trade-Marx specified Matthews low-VOC paints. Wayfinding signs on the building’s I-beams are magnetic and thus easily movable. In addition, wood used throughout
the building was reclaimed from an old warehouse formerly on the site, and Studio SC employed it for several placemaking elements, including the three-story typographic “spine” climbing one side of the central staircase and feature walls throughout. Original plans called for sandblasting the wood to achieve the level of detail Studio SC wanted, says Nic Chavez, project manager for Trade-Marx. “But once we got started, we discovered the old wood was so soft it splintered and broke out on us. It turns out that routing and hand-finishing worked best.” Solving these and other problems on the fly—as well as value engineering in real-time, managing a lot of moving parts, and dealing with multiple clients—made the project exciting and challenging for Studio SC. “We set out to show what EGD could do to enhance the architectural vision and to provide an inspirational workplace by telling the story of the Corps and the rivers that are so important to this region,” says Chen. “I think we accomplished that.”
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GalleryOne
Budget Confidential
Open Date December 2012
graphics artist; Eric Mika, Caitlin Morris, Philipp Rockel, Josh Silverman, David Scharf, creative technologists; Sundar Raman director of creative engineering; Ethan Holda director of technology
HONOR AWARD
Interactives Concepts, Design, and Production Local Projects
Exhibition Design and Space Planning Gallagher & Associates
At the Cleveland Museum of Art’s new Gallery One, the Collections Wall allows visitors to explore more than 3,800 artworks. The 5- by 40-foot interface is composed of 150 Christie MicroTiles—multi-touch LED-based rear-projection cubes—the first and largest installation of this technology.
Design Team Jake Barton principal; Katie Lee creative director; Keeli Shaw project manager; Ian Curry interaction design director; Angela Chen interaction designer; Erika Tarte, Lynn Kiang graphic designers; Miriam Lakes content coordinator and developer; Jen Choi motion
Consultants Zenith Systems hardware and integration, Piction digital asset management
Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland, Ohio
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Project Area 16,000 sq. ft.
Photos Local Projects Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
The “Make a Face” interactive invites visitors to do just that, then uses facial recognition to match their expressions with one of 189 works in the collection.
ART NOUVEAU
The Cleveland Museum of Art uses digital experiences to reach out to new audiences. By Leslie Wolke
A
s deeply enmeshed as technology has become in our lives, there is one place where we still squint to read small labels, strain to hear static-filled audio guides, and wrestle with disorienting paper maps: the art museum. We walk gingerly, speak in hushed tones, and if a work of art catches our interest, there’s often no easy way to learn more. Attendance and patronage of art museums is on the decline, perhaps in some part due to the staid and reverential nature of a museum visit. The absence of younger audiences, especially families, portends a dim future for these cultural institutions and for generations of children who may not experience a connection to art and its history. Cultivating Gen-Next The Cleveland Museum of Art was founded in 1913 “for the benefit of all people forever.” In 2000, the well-respected institution began a $350 million renovation and expansion project to sustain its next hundred years of growth with a master plan and two new wings designed by architect Rafael Viñoly. In tandem with the architectural expansion, the museum’s board of directors and an insightful
philanthropic couple launched an initiative to grow new audiences to engage with art and with the museum. Milton and Tamar Maltz donated $10 million expressly to cultivate the next generation of art patrons. The result of the Maltz gift is Gallery One, an engaging space for visitors of all ages to interact with the collection in playful, casual, and social contexts. It houses a rare mix of low-tech (magnetic building blocks and shadow puppets) and state-of-the-art high-tech (the country’s largest multi-touch touch screen) elements, all designed with a single purpose: to spark an interest in art. The “right” amount of tech? With the Maltz Family mission in mind, a crossdisciplinary team from the museum selected exhibition design firm Gallagher & Associates and a media design firm to develop the initial vision for the space. Patrick Gallagher, Founder and President of the firm, says the museum team grounded the project in visitor input and market testing. “Their research had shown that younger people were frustrated by the process of visiting a museum: why are things there? Why are they important?” These questions had to be answered.
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For “Strike a Pose,” visitors are scored on how accurately they recreate a pose from a sculpture. This interactive uses Microsoft Kinect to track the user’s position and a webcam and facial recognition software to track faces.
In those early stages of the project, the team wrestled with the role of technology in Gallery One. Would screens play the leading role with artifacts from the collection as supporting characters? Would the gallery be isolated as a “tech zone” far from the heart of the museum? This was a daring new challenge for museum curators: how to reconcile the tangible benefits of interaction and exploration through digital tools with the unique, immersive experience of interacting with art objects? These questions may have been compounded by a mismatch among the teams—the media design firm was soon let go. When New York-based Local Projects was brought in to replace the original media design firm, they were asked to assess the technology approach and the layout of the space. Jake Barton, Local Projects Principal and Founder, responded in an unexpected way: “We re-designed the general layout with the museum, pulling the screens away from the artworks, consolidating them in the middle of each gallery, and generally redesigning the space so it looks exactly like a traditional art gallery.” Shifting the emphasis from digital screens to the works of art themselves made the curators comfortable enough to populate the gallery with some of the most important pieces in the collection. Barton sums it up: “Masterworks hang in the gallery because the technology is diminished, and the artwork is the primary experience.” Today, works by Pablo Picasso, Chuck Close, and Auguste Rodin share space with a 12th century French marble carving and an Edo-period Japanese bottle. Caroline Goeser, the museum’s Director of Education and Interpretation, explains, “We chose the works of art in concert with the curators—they each ask an important question to engage visitors in dialogue and exploration.”
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Intergenerational learning through play “The museum had to create a connection with very young visitors and the collection was the most important part of that process,” Gallagher explains. This was the inspiration for Studio Play, an activity area within Gallery One that caters to young children and their parents. Easels, felt boards, and shadow puppets beckon kids to play together, drawing inspiration from artworks such as Calder mobiles and Chinese landscape paintings. Interactive touch screens invite children to draw a shape and view items from the collection that incorporate that form. As Caroline Goeser explains, “Studio Play is a space for intergenerational learning—a place to work and create together.” “I think the team appreciated that we’re skeptical about technology,” Barton recalls. “Nothing ages worse than bleeding-edge technology, but if you’re creating meaningful experiences, those will age well.” Barton and his team created eight multi-touch activity centers, the 40-foot-long centerpiece Collections Wall, and an iPad app. Visitors can explore six thematic groupings of artworks via interactive kiosks on low pedestals resembling easels. Each 46-inch multi-touch screen is placed 14 feet from its subject artwork to allow for a variety of circulation and visit patterns. Through the looking glass The six interactives are named “lenses,” underscoring that technology’s role in this environment is to enhance viewing and provide context, but remain as transparent as possible. Barton calls these “walk-up interfaces—they must be intuitive and inviting and work seamlessly.” Through the lenses’ games and activities, visitors begin a dialogue about art that continues as they explore the rest of the museum.
“ T he mantra of art museums: Be quiet. Be careful. Don’t touch.
If you’re especially curious, put your hands behind your back or in your pockets for good measure. Here, the viewing experience becomes engaging and interactive through the sophisticated use of technology. Well done. I can’t wait to visit.”
—Jury comment
For example, the Sculpture Lens asks the question, “How do our bodies inspire art?” through two interactive games. “Make a Face” uses facial recognition to match a visitor’s expression with one of 189 works within the collection. “Strike a Pose,” scores visitor on how accurately they recreate a pose from a sculpture. (This lens uses Microsoft Kinect to track the user’s position and a webcam and facial recognition software to track faces.) While the Sculpture Lens demonstrates some innovative user interactions, the Painting Lens may be more thought-provoking by simply polling visitors to “Choose a Reason” — why was this painting painted? Barton explains, “These simple matching games help the curators convey arguably advanced points of view: the concept of functionality of a painting. It’s a prime example of experiential learning: taking an idea and producing an experience that teaches that idea.” A feat of engineering and design The curators and design team envisioned Gallery One as a place for visitors to explore the fundamental questions “What is it? What do you see? How was it made? Why was it made?” The largest expression of these questions and answers is the Collections Wall, a dazzling 5- by 40-foot interface that displays more than 3,800 artworks from the museum’s collection. On the Collections Wall, multiple visitors can browse art by medium, year, geography, and gallery. With the companion iPad app, ArtLens, visitors can save their favorite works and generate a tour to see them in person. The museum lends iPads to those who want to use them and provides iPad-toting visitors with an RFID chip to make their iPad location-aware within the museum.
The wall presented quite a design challenge to the Local Projects team: how to display nearly 4,000 works of art in an engaging, dynamic composition that works from afar and from closeup, encouraging visitors to “zoom into” a single work of art in a more intimate interaction? “One of the biggest lessons we learned was that the hardest problems are best solved by actually making something and being in the presence of it, not through abstract discussions of what might or might not work,” says Barton. He now applies this methodology as “Prototype First.” Once the software was built, they were able to hone the interaction design in ways that they never would have conceived through wireframing and conceptual exercises. Barton recalls, “During the last month before the Gallery One opening, we were still making improvements. Everyone needs to be on board for this more agile and iterative design process.” Gallagher extends this philosophy, even past opening day: “You’re going to get it 90% at the start, and you have to be ready to make those adjustments, and make it better.” Gallery One opened to the public in January 2013 along with Viñoly’s expansive atrium and a new café. Staff report that visitorship to the museum is on the rise. Visitor studies are in progress and the curators are beginning to comb through the analytics generated by the interactive elements to gauge visitor behavior. Analytics aside, Goeser is delighted to see families and groups interacting with the art, “elbowing each other and having fun and doing what you’re not supposed to do in a museum— touching the walls!”
When media design firm Local Projects was brought on, they actually influenced the museum to diminish the presence of technology in the gallery. They helped rethink the gallery layout and recommended a substantial reduction of screens from the original design, as well as pulling the screens away from the artworks to allow for a more traditional gallery experience.
Leslie Wolke (leslie.wolke@gmail.com) is a wayfinding technology consultant. She is a member of the SEGD Board of Directors and Founding Co-Chair of SEGD’s annual innovation event, Xlab.
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Boy Scouts Base Camp Charlie Trinity Works and Boy Scouts of America HONOR AWARD
Summit Bechtel Reserve, Glen Jean, West Virginia
Budget Confidential Project Area 44,000 sq. ft. Open Date July 2012 Design RSM Design Design Team Suzanne Redmond Schwartz, Harry Mark principals in charge; Kyle Richter senior designer; Jaime Gonzales production
SCOUT’S HONOR RSM creates a sustainable and utilitarian signage and wayfinding prototype for the new home of the Boy Scouts’ National Scout Jamboree. By Jenny S. Reising
The camp’s 6-ft.-tall directional signs evoke the utilitarian aesthetic of a Swiss army knife. RSM Design initially specified steel plate slicing down into the wooden posts, but to eliminate the potential for rotting, Design Communications used aluminum blades with a faux-galvanized finish. In line with the project’s sustainability goals, messaging was accomplished using cutouts rather than add-ons.
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Fabrication Design Communications Ltd. primary fabricator Consultants Lake Flato architects, Andropogon landscape architects Photos Gary Hartley Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
Four-sided, faux-galvanized aluminum sign structures feature rough-sawn reclaimed hemlock or cedar on three sides and stenciled lettering that indicates the campsite and subcamp. The latitude and longitude provide further location identification in case of an emergency.
A
s the Boy Scouts of America geared up to celebrate its centennial in 2010, the youth organization saw the opportunity to make some changes. One of the biggest endeavors was finding a permanent home for the National Scout Jamboree—sort of like the Olympics of scouting—where 50,000 Scouts converge every four years for 10 days of activities ranging from climbing, hiking, and archery to whitewater rafting and zip lines. BSA reached out to Trinity Works, a developer based in Fort Worth, Texas, to find a site and develop it. After reviewing proposals from all 50 states, West Virginia won the bid in 2009 with a 10,600-acre forested setting that shares a border with the New River Gorge National River and 70,000 additional acres of forested land. Called Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, the location is a dream setting with endless outdoor options for high-energy adolescent boys and girls. BSA knew campers, staff, and volunteers would need help navigating this mini-city, and they saw the opportunity to brand the site in sync with changes afoot in the organization.
RSM at the helm Project management was key and Trinity Works knew it needed a design firm that could handle the challenges of a complex, multi-headed client. “With BSA, we were dealing with a lot of different groups, including donors, and needed a firm that could communicate clearly with everyone, rally everyone around the solution, and carry the brand through the project,” explains Allison Schapker, Trinity Works Director of Design and Sustainability. Trinity Works handpicked San Clemente, Calif.-based RSM Design not only to create a new identity, wayfinding, and signage program for the camp, but also to set architectural guidelines for the entire site. “The Boy Scouts are going through a revolution and an evolution in terms of interest and excitement,” says Harry Mark, RSM principal. “The client wanted to push the envelope for sustainability and aesthetics. And the environment needed to reflect this future.” To that end, Trinity Works organized a 10-day visioning session in the winter of 2010, following the Centennial National Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, with all of the participants—architectural firms, landscape architects, environmental graphic designers, thematic consultants, and sports representatives—and asked RSM to lead the way. “What came out of this session was an amazingly cohesive, sustainable vision for the project that was not reminiscent of days gone by but much more forward-looking,” recalls Mark.
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Aluminum showerhouse signage is designed with flexibility in mind. Tracks at top and bottom allow the panel to slide right or left, depending on who will be using the restroom (men or women, youth or adults) during certain events. Tamper-proof fasteners keep campers from getting mischievous with the signs. RSM also had a little fun with the icons, putting scout caps and sashes on the figures.
eautifully moves away “B
from the typical signage associated with state parks and campgrounds. Appropriately informal, it takes cues from flag poles and tent-like structures—striking the right balance between being representational but not overtly literal of the campsite vernacular.”
—Jury comment
Straightforward and sustainable The first realization of that bigger vision was Base Camp Charlie, a prototype campsite that hosted 2,000 campers, staff, and volunteers in 2012 for a test run of RSM’s wayfinding program. Sign construction was guided by scouting tradition—using self-evident, didactic construction methods, such as wood for the soap box derby—as well as sustainability. That means you won’t find PVC, plastic, or petroleum-based products on the site. Rather, designers focused on going beyond LEED certification; materials were sourced locally whenever possible and construction is obvious rather than hidden. For the prototype signage, RSM used singular color coding—in this case, orange—to signify the campsite and used discrete elements that can be swapped out easily. For example, the directional signs feature cut-out letters and symbols that make them double-sided without adding material. The sign blades are bolted on, making it easy to add or subtract a blade as needed, enhancing the system’s flexibility. The showerhouse signs are also designed with ultimate flexibility to accommodate changes in who is using the facility (e.g., men/women or boys/ girls). The panel actually slides to the right or left on a discrete track and a lock mechanism secures it so mischievous campers can’t switch it out while no one’s watching. Blade signposts are made from indigenous wood (cedar and hemlock), which is readily available, sourced locally, and not pressure treated. Aluminum sign panels are faux-painted to resemble galvanized steel, inspired by the construction of mining equipment and bridges found throughout West Virginia. Lettering and symbols are cut out rather than etched or painted, which not only minimizes material usage but also avoids unnecessary add-ons that could be damaged by curious campers. Sign construction is also designed to go the distance. For example, galvanized angle irons and bolts make the signs tamper-proof, bolts are visible rather than hidden, and stock rather than custom sizes were used to minimize waste. Collaboration: a key to success One of the keys to the sign program’s success was involving the signage fabricator early in the process. Design Communications Ltd. was brought in as a consultant well before the project went out for bid. As a result, DCL was able to provide input on the pros and cons of certain materials and finishes and offer solutions that would make better economic and environmental sense.
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Twenty-foot-high truss signage on a cast-inplace concrete foundation references scaled-down electrical or fire towers. An informational hierarchy includes the color-coded camp name at top (in this case, “C” for Charlie”), followed by the subcamp (4) and then the neighborhood (Big Bend).
For example, RSM originally specified locust wood for the signposts. However, the supply of locust is limited and the size of the wood doesn’t lend itself well to construction, so locally sourced hemlock and cedar were used instead. RSM originally envisioned galvanized steel throughout the sign system, but DCL convinced them that aluminum painted with a faux-galvanized finish would be cheaper to ship and install, make it easier to deal with sharp edges, and eliminate the issue of rust eventually seeping into the ground. DCL, which subsequently won the bid to fabricate and install the signage, paid particular attention to the end users. “One constant theme was understanding that we’re dealing with Boy Scouts who are pretty clever about how things go together and come apart,” says Mark Andreasson, DCL President. As a result, material thicknesses are robust so that letters can’t be bent over to change the way they read, and openings in letters were designed so that fingers would not get stuck in them. Finding the way The prototype signage helped designers figure out what worked from a wayfinding standpoint, what didn’t, and how to improve it. “The biggest thing we learned was to manage people’s journeys from the start,” says Schapker. “People need to know where they’re going, what’s on the way, and how long it will take. So we put our emphasis on the trailhead signs, which include a linear map of the trail, what intersects it, where first aid and water can be found, and how to get to the Summit Center.” Mark says social media was instrumental in identifying what resonated with the visitors. “We learned a lot about what worked by going on Facebook,” he says. “But when all was said and done, everyone liked the signage and the kids didn’t get lost. In fact, the kids were gathered around the signage, which became the icon of that event.” The real test came in mid-July 2013, when 50,000 visitors headed to the Summit for the National Jamboree. The complete program scheduled for completion included entry signage, themed signs for each sporting area, overall wayfinding, vehicular signs, and a smartphone app. For the design team, the project has been a lesson in the power of environmental graphics. Says Mark, “The Trinity Works team recognized that the environmental graphics weren’t just about signage, wayfinding and branding; they were about crafting the guest experience for scouts and visitors. It was not only an unusual and intimidating project, it was also exhilarating.” Jenny Reising is a Cincinnati-based writer and editor.
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Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel Legacy Health Portland, Oregon HONOR AWARD
Budget Confidential Project Area 334,000 sq. ft. Open Date January 2012 Architecture and Environmental Graphic Design ZGF Architects Design Team Robert Frasca, design partner; Robert Packard partner in charge; Kip Storey project manager; Sharron
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van der Meulen principal interior designer; Julie Jenson, Franco Rosete, Kate Longenecker, Kenton McSween interior designers; Halliday Meisburger project architect; Adam Christie, Justin Brooks, Randy McGee, Scott Tarrant, Nick Micheels architects; Jennifer Mountain, Solvei Neiger, Sue Ann Barton medical planners; Robert Wood, Kim Isaacson, Katherine Walker landscape architects; Sara Schmidt environmental graphics
Signage/Wayfinding Design Mayer Reed Design Team Michael Reed principal, Debbie Shaw senior designer, Kathy Fry donor wall Fabrication Skyline Design architectural glass; R.D. Wing Corian frieze and nurses’ stations; Artek custom light boxes; DesignTex printed imagery on vinyl, digital walls; Pathway Design signage Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
Three Corian kiosks guide families through the main lobby and add a fun factor right inside the front door: Peepholes at various heights invite kids to spy abstract colors and shapes through kaleidoscopic lenses. (Photo: Bruce Forster)
NATURE AND NURTURE
Randall Children’s Hospital uses nature-inspired architecture, art, and environmental graphics to promote healing and create positive distractions. By Pat Matson Knapp
A Corian frieze wraps the main lobby with an illuminated ribbon of animals and poetry. At the reception design, tactile, backlit typography adds a warm welcome. (Photo: Bruce Forster)
W
hen Legacy Health envisioned its new Randall Children’s Hospital—a ninestory, 334,000-square-foot facility that opened in Portland in 2012—it wanted to create a calm, safe, and comforting environment for its young patients and their families. Embracing the concept of familycentered care, it includes amenities that encourage family members to stay with the patients during their hospital stays and actively participate in the healing process. Legacy and ZGF Architects also knew about the wealth of research showing that access to the natural environment reduces stress and promotes healing. So in addition to architectural features that let in natural light and provide views to the outdoors, the new facility is infused with nature-inspired art, colors, patterns, and materials. A comprehensive environmental graphics program weaves them all together, creating a bright but soothing space that appeals to children and adults alike. “We wanted it to be a healing place, but also a place of inspiration and unexpected discovery. Positive distractions were very important,” says Sharron van der Muelen, ZGF Design Principal. Collaborating to direct and distract In addition to the architecture, ZGF also developed the hospital’s environmental graphics program, a richly layered and colorful system that celebrates the geographic diversity of the Oregon and Washington areas the hospital serves. Each floor features an animal found in its region that repeats throughout in a variety of materials, from textiles to resin to glass. “Especially in a children’s hospital, environmental graphics are a great way to provide something that the children can identify with, something that can distract them from what is potentially a very scary time,” notes van der Muelen. eg magazine — 33
She and her client also knew that effective signage and wayfinding would be key to providing an environment as free from stress as possible. As a matter of fact, signage was among the 10 values that Legacy and ZGF identified in pre-design visioning sessions. So ZGF called on another Portland firm and long-time collaborator, Mayer/Reed, to provide signage and wayfinding expertise. The wayfinding issues were straightforward: direct visitors from the hospital lobby to elevators and up to patient rooms and treatment areas. Mayer/Reed Senior Designer Debbie Shaw dove right into the floor plans, developing a clear understanding of the paths that patients and their families would take both inside the children’s facility and from the children’s hospital to services in the main hospital. (In a separate project, Mayer/Reed is updating the wayfinding system for the overall Legacy complex.) Point/counterpoint ZGF had already developed the multi-colored, multi-layered EGD program by the time Mayer/ Reed arrived on the scene and, responding to what they saw as too much signage in the general hospital, knew they wanted a “minimal” system that would communicate quickly and cleanly. “ZGF had done such a great job researching the visual themes and color palettes,” says Shaw. “We quickly saw that the best thing to do was to stay out of the way. A pure, white sign system would be a counterpoint to the vibrant surroundings,
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and we could add small touches of color and fun.” ZGF had also already chosen white Corian as a unifying element throughout the hospital. It appears most prominently in the lobby as a curving, backlit frieze and reception desk. Perforations in the Corian let LED light through, illuminating images of the animals that patients will see throughout the hospital. The Corian ribbon repeats in nurses’ stations on all floors. “It’s a very workable, very durable material— and appropriate for a hospital setting due to its non-porous, hygienic properties,” says Shaw. She adopted Corian for signage elements as well, starting with the slim sculptural pylons found in the main lobby. They bear minimal wayfinding text (pointing families to the elevator doors where they will find detailed directories), but add a fun factor right inside the front door. Peepholes at three different eye levels invite kids to look through kaleidoscopic acrylic lenses that bisect the interior of the pylons. “We had to design something freestanding, because there was essentially no wall space available and the ceilings are 40 feet high in this atrium-like lobby,” explains Shaw. “It also needed to be in the path of travel, so we wanted people to be able to flow around it; it couldn’t be a circulation stopper.” She did multiple studies before arriving at a form that is basically elliptical, “but with a waistline. We wanted it to be graceful and pick up the curvilinear form of the space.” She also incorporated two flat surfaces for text.
Patient floor identifiers, readily visible upon exiting elevators, feature superscaled numbers and animal imagery. Created by Skyline Design, the murals are direct-printed onto both surfaces of the glass, creating wayfinding landmarks throughout the hospital. (Photo: Bruce Forster)
Patient rooms are identified by 3form resin panels integrating colors, patterns, and animal imagery from ZGF’s geographic themes. The 3form “Zebrano” panels glow as nightlights when corridors dim for bedtime. Simple room signage was also incorporated into the panels. (Photo: Bruce Forster)
ospitals pose difficult EGD challenges that require “H rigorous, integrated solutions to communicate
orientation information in a welcoming, comforting manner. Engaging, yet remarkably restrained for a children’s hospital, the signage and placemaking programs here reinforce each other to create delight and enhance both wayfinding and well-being.” —Jury comment
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Mayer/Reed designed a minimal signage system that serves as a clean counterpoint to the vibrant interior color palette. Signage minimizes text by using numbers and symbols. (Photo: Bruce Forster)
Matching the rainbow Once patients and families are directed to the elevator doors and above to the patient floors, the EGD and signage system includes floor identifiers, room identifiers, directionals, and restroom and regulatory signs. Just off the elevators, families are met with bold floor identifiers featuring super-scaled numbers and animal icons direct-printed on glass. Designed by ZGF and created by Skyline Design, these place-makers are an important component of the wayfinding system. Outside patient rooms, 3form “Zebrano” resin panels integrate colors and patterns from the regional themes, doubling as backlit night lights during the evening hours. ZGF left a space for room-number signage on the panels to the right of the patient room doors. To this colorful mix, Shaw added white signage that incorporates rounded corners and pops of accent colors taken from the regional palettes. Signs were wall or flag-mounted to keep ceiling planes unobstructed. The signs are simple and mostly number- and icon-based: “Our goal was to use as little text as possible—to direct as simply and cleanly as we could,” says Shaw. The Mix, the hospital’s house font, worked well for signage, and Mayer/Reed complemented it with Futura. While the signs look simple, clean, and elegant, choosing the accent colors and then matching them to the colors found in the rest of the environmental graphics program proved tricky, says Shaw. “It wasn’t as simple as starting with Pantone,” she explains. “We had to start with what ZGF had already established and had gotten client approval on, which was back-
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painted glass and 3form resin colors. We had to match the sign finishes, screenprinting inks, and digital inks with that. We ended up with 28 mixes from different media, so a lot of effort went into making sure the colors looked consistent among the various elements of the program.” This was a challenge shared by primary signage fabricator Pathway Design. Full circle Beyond ZGF’s rich geographic themes, circles and circular forms are a recurring motif, almost ambient as they appear on everything from ceiling treatments to spirographs etched on elevator doors. Wall openings are rounded and reception desks and nurses’ stations have rounded corners instead of sharp angles. Even signage is rounded off, and arrows are composed of a series of circles. van der Muelen remembers a very early conversation with Legacy CEO Carla Harris. “She told me, ‘I realize the building itself has to be rectilinear because it has to fit on the site and rectangles are often the most efficient use of space. But I think children relate best to rounded corners and circular objects rather than squares and rectangles. So let’s do our best to incorporate circles wherever we can.’” van der Muelen couldn’t agree more. “If you want to create an environment that is softer and playful yet sophisticated, use circles. They’re just kinder, gentler, and more organic and somehow add to a general feeling of well-being. And of course there’s the safety issue. Any time you can eliminate sharp angles, it will be a nicer place for kids. And that was our goal: to create a place of safety and comfort.”
Nature-inspired artwork, architectural features, and environmental graphics were designed to help reduce stress and promote healing. (Photo: Nick Merrick Š Hedrich Blessing)
Projecting signs have radius corners compatible with the soft edges of the architectural forms. Sign edges and pictograms are pops of color drawn from the interior palette. (Photo: Bruce Forster)
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Project: “Wheels” 2010 Santa Monica, CA Artist: Anne Marie Karlsen 58 ft x 51 ft Fireform Graphic Tile
Rated in the Americans for the Arts 2011 ‘Year in Review’ as 1 of 47 of the most outstanding public artworks in the country.
© 3M 2013. 3M, Envision and MCS are trademarks of 3M Company.
Commissioned by the Santa Monica Arts Commission
Congratulations 3M Commercial Graphics congratulates the SEGD 2013 Global Design Award Winners. We support your commitment to the highest standards in the field of environmental graphic design with 3M™ Envision™ Films.
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Photographs by Bill Short Photography
airFIELD Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Department of Aviation Art Program MERIT AWARD Atlanta
Budget $885,000 Project Area 90 ft. long by 30 ft. wide Open Date June 2012 Design UEBERSEE, Inc. Design Team Jamie Barlow project manager, artist; Dan Goods, Nik Hafermaas artists; Daniel Massey programming; Gustave Huber technical direction; Andrew Kudless/ Matsys parametric design;
a
irFIELD is a dynamic sculpture synced to real-time flight data reflecting the heartbeat of the world’s busiest air travel hub, the HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport. Suspended in the center of the airport’s new international terminal, the 90-foot-long by 30-footwide data-driven art piece evokes the wonder of flight with its two intersecting, sweeping forms. Developed and fabricated by the digital art platform UEBERSEE,
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airFIELD is composed of thousands of custom-made liquid crystal discs that change from opaque to transparent states with an electric charge. The discs are controlled by custom-engineered software that constantly monitors a live stream of Atlanta flight traffic data that triggers generative motion behavior rippling through the sculpture. These movements follow coded dynamic parameters, allowing for an everevolving visual experience that creates the sensation of flight.
Alex Smith iPad hacking; Jim “ This is an innovative Hetherington fabrication and way to activate a space installation through a dynamic piece of sculpture. The solution Fabrication and integration of data UEBERSEE fabrication, interpretation to drive installation, and project the sculpture is both management, Citala US elegant and contextually Inc. liquid crystal discs, intriguing.” FlightAware Inc. real-time —Jury comment data feeds Photos Jamie Barlow, Dan Goods, Nik Hafermaas Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
Barbie Play with Fashion Fashion Institute of Technology and Mattel Inc. New York
Budget $60,000 and in-kind contributions Project Area 1,250 sq. ft. Open Date May 2012
MERIT AWARD
Design FIT Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design students Student Design Team Carol Kane, Charlotte Bargoud, Cheeye Choi, Emma Pawlukojc, Samiel Laury, Zhanna Gomanenko, Ellie Yeeun Kim, Emily Hervan, Lorena Rodriguez Ostia, Lani Gideon, Da-Re Kim , Dahea You, Tina Kim, Keisha Caceres, Katherine Hasler, Kyu Yeong Lee, Stephanie
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ourth-semester associates degree students at the Fashion Institute of Technology created the Barbie Play with Fashion exhibition as part of a competition to design fashions, interiors, jewelry, photos, films, and visual displays for Barbie and Ken. The partnership with Mattel Inc. also aimed to reinvigorate the Barbie brand to reflect the toys’ increasingly sophisticated audience. Finalists in the competition developed their designs into a twostory, 600-square-foot multimedia exhibition in the lobby of FIT’s Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center in Manhattan. Students followed a rigorous design process beginning with analysis of design, market, and brand trends and small-group exploration of
Denier, Elyse Falato, Thiago Eichner, Phoebe King, Patricia Loviglio, Daniela Moldonado, Sarah Petrik, Daleja Foreman, Shweta Sharma, Daniel Morris, Sean Madden, Sarah Karp, Mike Johnston, Larissa Taylor, Perle Malka, Gabrielle Marino, Natasha Melo, Jihye Shin Faculty Craig Berger lead professor and department chair; Anne Kong lead professor; Lawrence Langham, Robin Drake graphic design professors Fabrication Octanorm modular and structural systems; iZone phenolic signs and labels; Applied Image vinyl and
Sintra graphics printing; ColorEdge foam core and window vinyl graphics printing; Urban Sign acrylic elements Photos Fashion Institute of Technology
“ The iconic doll brand is delightfully brought to life in this small-scale exhibition. I particularly liked how the broad variety of elements used in 2D and 3D installations were all held together by color, pattern, and form that so well reflected all that is Barbie.” —Jury comment
various design concepts. From these concepts, a group strategy was developed and students took on responsibility for graphic identity, object display, digital media, wayfinding, and interpretive elements. Sponsoring fabricators, material suppliers, and printers educated the students on construction techniques incorporated into the exhibition. The project was a successful balance of exploration and design, multidisciplinary collaboration, and the fostering of showmanship meant to bring the excitement of the runway and New York’s Fashion Week to a diverse audience. The exhibition attracted more than 10,000 unique visitors in its four-month span.
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Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation MERIT AWARD Seattle
Budget $17 million Project Area 11,000 sq. ft. Open Date February 2012 Design Olson Kundig Architects/ Studio Matthews Design Team Alan Maskin lead designer; Stephen Yamada-Heidner managing principal; Marlene Chen project manager; Michael Picard, Blair Payson project architects; Phil Turner kinetic engineer;
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he Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center exhibition explains how and why the foundation was founded and describes its work around the globe. And it invites visitors into a conversation about global issues, inspiring them to explore how they can make a positive difference. A collaboration between Olson Kundig Architects and Studio Matthews, the experience begins on the sidewalk outside. Informational exhibits double as seating, stretching along the glazed street façade. Views inside reveal a ramp that parallels the sidewalk, opening into gallery spaces beyond. Together, sidewalk and ramp blur the line between exterior and interior space. Inside is a series of five connected spaces: the Voices Gallery (featuring hundreds of faces
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Charlie Fairchild interiors; Kristine Matthews, Cassie Klingler graphic designers; Hans-Erik Blomgren structural engineer; Jason Edling lighting consultant Fabrication Sellen Construction general contractor, Pacific Studio exhibit fabricator Photos Benjamin Benschneider, Kevin Scott Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
from the foundation and its grantees), the Family & Foundation Gallery (with a 30-footlong interactive timeline), the Partnerships Gallery (describing initiatives with partners all over the world), a theater, and the Innovation & Inspiration Gallery, where a series of mechanical and digital interactives invite in-depth visitor participation. Sustainable materials and processes were an important part of the exhibit development process. Exhibits plug into a system of freestanding steel armatures, facilitating change in the future. The prevalence of wood—from graphic image panels to interactive rollers—provides a warm, inviting, and tactile experience.
“ There is a holistic creative fabric that is integrated throughout the environment and fixtures. The restrained use of color, imagery, and type makes the rich variety of material more accessible, allowing bold colors to add a well-placed accent.” —Jury comment
Buchanan Courtyard Pavilion University of British Columbia Vancouver MERIT AWARD
Budget Confidential Project Area 100m2 Open Date September 2011 Design PUBLIC: Architecture + Communication Design Team Susan Mavor principal, communication design; Brian Wakelin, John Wall
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sked to create a visual expression of what it means to study arts at the University of British Columbia, PUBLIC: Architecture + Communication enlisted faculty from the 26 arts schools to contribute quotes expressing the core values of their fields of study. Philosophy’s reference to an ancient Greek reflecting pool and its qualities of reflection and self-examination led the design team to the foot of a new concrete pavilion at the edge of a courtyard designed for large-scale celebrations and the exchange of ideas. Also designed by PUBLIC, the pavilion anchors the space and provides a stage for performances and festivals. A shallow skim of water extends from the base in all directions.
principal, architects; Scot Geib, Mark Stokoe typography; Phillips, Farevaag, Smallenburg, landscape architects Fabrication Innovative Signage Inc., John Peachey & Associates signage fabrication, Scott Construction pavilion, courtyard, pool
“ The integration of architecture and the theme of unified disciplines are delivered with power and restraint.” —Jury comment
Photos Nic Lehoux, Mark Stokoe
PUBLIC rendered the quotes in concentric rings within the pool—more than 8,000 characters set in 11 languages across seven alphabets. The graphics were prepared using a computer-cut vinyl resist laid over concrete, micro-sandblasted and filled with white epoxy resin. The pool surface was then treated with a black wash to highlight the text. The combination of architectural form and typography connects both literal and conceptual aspects of the Arts to form a dynamic revitalized place on campus. The results were so well received that UBC Arts asked PUBLIC to develop a new visual identity based on the environmental graphics.
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Camden Yards Baltimore Orioles Baltimore
MERIT AWARD
Open Date April 2012 Design Ashton Design Design Team Ronnie Younts principal/ creative director; Keith Kellner lead designer, project manager, illustrator; Alexey Ikonomou, Alison Grissinger designers
Fabrication “ This represents a wonderful National Signs, Corsair and tasteful graphic overlay Display Systems, Belsinger that competently ties Sign Works, Advantage Signs together the sense of place, & Graphics, Triangle Sign architecture, and historical & Service, Aldinger Signs significance of Baltimore and & Murals, Merrell Design, the ball club, truly adding to Heritage Flag Company, F.W. a special fan experience and Haxel Flag, Flagpole, Banner sense of place.” & Sign Co. —Jury comment Photos Erik Kvalsvik Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
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s designer of record for Oriole Park at Camden Yards since 1992, Ashton Design has been responsible for developing and maintaining the ballpark’s complete graphic vision—from exterior, wayfinding, and ADA signage to placemaking. For the 20th anniversary opening day in 2012, the park got a graphic refresh. Ashton enlivened its color palette with five gradations of color from yellow to Oriole orange, complementing the iconic red brick warehouse façade and the standard Camden green of the 1890s Baltimore Baseball Club. The firm also created new names and graphics as part of a complete concessions
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makeover, designed retired numbers sculptures for the left field upper deck, created new stair murals featuring songs important to Orioles fans, developed team history displays on the Club level, and designed new restroom entrance murals to enhance wayfinding. For each area of the park, Ashton tapped its extensive research to build visual variety and invite fan exploration without sacrificing a coherent sense of place. In the Carvel Kids’ Corner, murals teach about the physics of baseball. Eight-foot-tall fiberglass “bobblehead” sculptures in the main entrance plaza are based on the Oriole bird logos from the 1960s, 1970s, and 2002.
Charles Dickens: The Key to Character The New York Public Library, The Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery, Stephen A. Schwarzman MERIT AWARD Building New York
Budget Confidential Project Area 530 sq. ft. Open Date September 2012 Design Ann Sappenfield, Roger Westerman Design Design Team Ann Sappenfield exhibition and graphic design, Roger Westerman exhibition and physical design
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o celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’s birth, The New York Public Library wanted to present an informative, entertaining exhibition for all ages. Curator William Moeck culled documents and artifacts from the library’s extensive collections. The client requested a total transformation of the Wachenheim Gallery, a tiny, 530- square-foot space ornately decorated in the Beaux Arts style. The client wanted to include interactive elements that would be both educational and engaging for younger visitors. With these guiding parameters, as well as the curator’s central focus on Dickens’ myriad of wonderful characters and how they have been depicted in art, song, theater, and film, designers Ann Sappenfield and Roger Westerman Design LLC chose a “cabinet of
Fabrication New Project LLC primary fabrication; Plug Digital, Color X environmental graphics; Visual Print Solutions, Inc. brochures and cards; Heartland Scenic Studio zoetrope fabrication Photos © Ann Sappenfield and Roger Westerman
“ The success of this exhibition lies in the resolution of the space, where a seamless integration of graphic messages supports and doesn’t overwhelm the objects. The premise of a wunderkammer cleverly allows for many objects in a small exhibition space and feels appropriate for the content. There’s a nice balance of interactives and surprise moments for all ages.” —Jury comment
curiosities” theme as a unifying motif. This approach addressed the need to conceal the gallery’s ornate architecture as well as the challenge of presenting a wide variety and large quantity of material, especially for such a small room. Cabinets of curiosities are meant to be rooms chock full of thoughtprovoking objects, the affinities between them discoverable through hidden keys or clues. The designers included objects in the cabinet that would visually illustrate the themes of Dickens’s work and life. These objects, ranging from a small stuffed alligator to a Victorian mantel clock set at 8:40, each relate to a specific Dickens character. Cards designed for viewers to take home elaborated on the connections between curious objects and curious characters.
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Dinosaur Hall, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County MERIT AWARD
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Los Angeles
Budget $14.7 million Project Area 14,000 sq. ft. Open Date July 2011 Design KBDA Design Team Kim Baer principal, content strategist; Allison Bloss creative director; Elizabeth Salud, Amanda Hovest designers
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inosaurs are one of the core offerings at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, with many one-of-a-kind and scientifically significant specimens. In July 2011, the museum opened the new, 14,000-square-foot Dinosaur Hall to highlight the latest dinosaur discoveries and bring the process of scientific investigation to life. The hall fills two large historic galleries, both with windows on one side. One gallery also features a massive, newly restored skylight. A key goal was to maximize use of this abundant natural light, selecting materials that respect the historical architecture while providing a contemporary yet timeless design vocabulary for the exhibit. KBDA created an exhibition program appealing to multigenerational families and school-age children
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Fabrication Lexington Design + Fabrication primary fabricator, iZone graphic panels, Crush Creative Ultraflex murals, Avery Ultraclear film, Picnic Design graphics production Photos Tom Bonner, Lisa Eisner, Ryan Miller
“ This exhibition is notable for having created one content-driven, dramatic series of galleries from three disparate spaces. The focus dinosaur mounts are dynamic and supporting evidence and interpretation is well placed.” —Jury comment
Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
on field trips, accommodating “streakers,” “strollers,” and “readers.” Each exhibit section features a floor-toceiling mural introducing the theme. The hierarchy of information throughout the hall is designed to help visitors navigate, identify topics of interest, and discern key take-away messages. Bold, colorful graphics help integrate real fossils, infographics, maps, engaging text, and multimedia interactives to provide multiple points of entry. Integrated surfaces for graphics, touchable specimens, and screens eliminated the need for separate label rails throughout most of the exhibit. Recognizing the exhibit would be popular and heavily used, the touch-friendly platforms and graphic panels are constructed of durable and ecofriendly materials.
The Edgeless School: Design for Learning The Center for Architecture New York MERIT AWARD
Budget $85,000 Project Area 2,200 sq. ft. Open Date October 2012 Exhibition Design Sage and Coombe Architects Design Team Jennifer Sage, Peter Coombe principals in charge; Skye Beach project designer; William Bryant, Andrew Kao, Julia M Leeming, Sara Murado designers
Graphic Design Hyprakt
“ This tackles a very topical issue around learning spaces for the 21st century. The Design Team hovering historical desks Josh Smith creative director; are cleverly mirrored by the Margaux Le Pierres, Aymie contemporary classroom Spitzer, Wen Ping Huang, chairs below. The viewer is Deroy Peraza designers; sandwiched between these Ambika Roos project experiences and immersed manager in media and text-driven information. The strength of Fabrication this project is the animation Duggal Visual Solutions subway posters, panels, vinyl, of all planes of the space. The graphics feel fresh and Shaw Contract Group carpet, free of the constraints of the Steelcase/Waldner’s desks and smartboard, Tim Pearson environment.” —Jury comment model bases, wall Photos Center for Architecture
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ow have today’s educational environments shifted to accommodate our unprecedented access to information? How is today’s school in some sense “edgeless” as students encounter seamless and fluid new technologies and media tools? How have architecture and design adapted to both influence and reflect these changes? The Center for Architecture, home to the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, is a hub for those interested in design and the built environment. Sage and Coombe Architects and Hyperakt worked with the Center on Edgeless
School: Design for Learning, an exhibit highlighting innovations in the design of educational environments and how new approaches to learning are being interpreted and facilitated by architects. The architecture and furniture displayed throughout the exhibit promoted transparency, collaboration, and use of technology, all at the cutting edge of education design. The exhibit’s design shifted boundaries and spilled over edges, challenging viewers to think differently about the space and recalling the sort of digital edgelessness we all experience.
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Fake Art Museum Anadolu University, Fine Arts Faculty Canteen Eskişehir, Turkey MERIT AWARD
Budget $6,000 Project Area 140m2 Open Date May 2012 Design Ceyda Artun, Dilek Erdogan Instructor Assistant Professor Melike Taşcıoğlu
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s part of their environmental graphic design course in Andalou University’s Graphic Design Masters Program, Ceyda Artun and Dilek Erdogan were challenged to transform the school’s Fine Arts Faculty Canteen into “something more inspirational, interactive, and educational.” Working with Assistant Professor Melike Tasçioglu, Artun and Erdogan decided to create the Fake Art Museum. Their idea was to encourage students to create reproductions of famous art works and exhibit them in a fun environment. They spruced up the canteen by painting walls and brickwork, creating new seating areas
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Fabrication “ From the name to the final Anadolu University Faculty collaborative installation, of Fine Arts paint supplies; this design says ‘fun.’ The Eskişehir/Duygu Reklam faux salon style collection vinyl window films; Xerox of roughly drawn picture Print Center, Eskişehir/Duygu frames invites participation Reklam vinyl frames; Tek Ofis by the students in this dining Mobilya tables and chairs; space, and results in a lasting KYS Chairs bar stools impression enjoyed by all.” —Jury comment Photos Ceyda Artun, Dilek Erdoğan Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
in front of the windows, replacing old tables with modern ones, and adding a large picnic table for group work. To make the idea of contributing to the museum inviting, they created an eclectic collection of fake frames that were reproduced in vinyl and mounted on the walls. A column in the middle of the space holds a graphic providing information about the Fake Art Museum concept and the famous artworks students can choose to recreate. Interpretive information about the artworks is presented in a formal way, but students are encouraged to personalize the presentations with their signatures.
First Day of School Colegio Anchieta Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
Budget $75,000 Project Area 8,500m2 Open Date March 2010
MERIT AWARD
Design SCENO Environmental Graphic Design
Design Team Gabriel Gallina creative director, Roberto Bastos project coordinator, Fernando Franco client service representative Fabrication Pino visual communication, Lupa Comunicação Visual tangram pieces, PHD Comunicação Visual banners
“ The spirited and playful nature of summer is reflected in this design. It is simple, sophisticated, and fun. Maybe it’s not so bad to say goodbye to summer and hello to a new school year.” —Jury comment
Photos Pedro Milanez
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o mark the 120th anniversary of the Anchieta School and welcome students on their first day back from summer vacation, SCENO Environmental Graphic Design created a visual communication program based on the tangram, the Chinese puzzle that challenges spatial reasoning skills with seven pieces that can be used to form different images. SCENO conceived the tangram theme as a way to establish a link between the period of vacation, rest, and leisure and the students’ return to a period of responsibilities, search for knowledge, reasoning, and concentration. Large-scale tangram pieces were placed in the school’s yards so that the students could interact in groups to create images together. Signage and graphics based on the concept were created to reinforce the visual theme. And the tangram theme also provided teachers with the foundation for instructional content throughout the first half of the school year.
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Graphic Design + Architecture, a 20th Century History
Publication Date November 2012 Author Richard Poulin
Rockport Publishers
Design Poulin + Morris Inc.
MERIT AWARD
Design Team Richard Poulin design director, Andreina Carrillo designer Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
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ichard Poulin’s longawaited Graphic Design + Architecture, A 20th-Century History examines the often overlooked union of graphic design and the built environment in the context of artistic, social, and cultural movements and influences of the 20th century. Released in November 2012, Graphic Design + Architecture is the first publication of its kind to provide a detailed historical overview of the pairing of these two disciplines. Poulin, Principal of the award-winning New York-based design firm Poulin + Morris and an SEGD Fellow, deftly discusses the relationship between typography, image, symbol, and visual
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“ This book provides a welcome, unique, and detailed review of graphic design and architecture, often highlighting where these two disciplines are blended to create singular visions. This will no doubt become a core reference for students and professionals alike—a publication that should be embraced, and one that has been long overdue.” —Jury comment
storytelling in the modern world by exploring principal themes, major technical developments, important manufacturers, and pioneering designers over the last 100 years. With examples dating back as far as ancient times (cave paintings at Lascaux, France; Egyptian hieroglyphics; Roman monumental inscriptions), to the modern era (Russian constructivist wall murals during the Bolshevik Revolution and the great white ways of Times Square, Piccadilly Circus, and the Las Vegas Strip), Graphic Design + Architecture reveals the continuous dialogue that has been exchanged between graphic design and the built environment throughout history.
Mobius Science Center Mobius Science Center Spokane, Wash.
Budget $3 million (fabrication and installation) Project Area 12,000 sq. ft. Open Date September 2012
MERIT AWARD
Design Renate Design Team Anne Bernard principal, creative director, Caroline Brownell Gut art director, graphic designer, Melissa Paugh project manager, Nathan Fasser 3D designer
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he Mobius Science Center is a new, 26,000-square-foot museum featuring 65 selfguided, interactive science exhibits. Its mission is to cultivate a love for science and technology among 8- to 12-year-olds by making science fun. Renate led the board, staff, and community through planning, design, and production of 12,000 square feet of innovative hands-on exhibits and experiences for the new museum. The open-floor facility encourages unscripted, experiential learning through self-discovery. Clean lines, sleek surfaces, and an industrial atmosphere evoke a high-tech feel. Graphic elements include floor projections that facilitate wayfinding and exhibit identification.
Fabrication Maltbie primary fabricator, Arxi Creative/Christian Bannister media production, Tenji, Inc./Mark Faulkner tanks and habitats, Graphic Zone die-cut vinyl graphics and silkscreening, Photo Lab Inc. Lambda clear base transparencies, direct substrate printing, inkjets
“ Striking in design, it breaks away from the ubiquitous, often brightly colored, visually noisy science center environment with a clean, open plan that offers free-form experimentation and interactive hands-on learning.” —Jury comment
Photos Patrick Bernard © Renate, LLC
Exhibits engage visitors through a combination of physical and technological interaction. An air cannon shoots blasts of air to move distant hanging targets. Visitors explore the mathematical nature of music by manipulating circular patterns on a touch table, including the ability to “steal” music from those next to them. A touchscreen table allows visitors to conduct a virtual autopsy, “peeling off ” layers of skin to learn about human anatomy. A high-speed digital camera captures visitors mid-jump, then allows a slow-motion replay. Participants can email themselves a video flipbook of their jump as a takeaway.
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Modern Slavery: Human Trafficking in the United States President Lincoln’s Cottage Washington, D.C. MERIT AWARD
Budget $22,000 Project Area 290 sq. ft. Open Date February 2012 Design Howard+Revis Design Design Team Tracy Revis principal in charge, Santosh Dhamat creative director, Elizabeth Eubank project manager, content developer, writer, Solvita Marriott graphic designer
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Fabrication Jeffrey Larry, Lincoln’s Cottage exhibit fabrication; CSI Printing & Graphics graphic production, Polaris Project content, still photography, video footage Photos Santosh Dhamat, Howard+Revis Design Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
aunched to mark the 150th anniversary of the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Modern Slavery: Human Trafficking in the United States challenges visitors to confront the fact that slavery exists in our time, and now holds more people than were held at the height of the transatlantic slave trade. In both its subject matter and design, this temporary exhibit— designed by Howard+Revis Design—is an intentional and marked departure from the core history exhibits at President Lincoln’s Cottage. Modern Slavery takes a stark look at modern slavery through a centerpiece AV projection carrying the first-person testimonies of trafficking survivors, and three large-format exhibition books that hold supporting data, photos, and graphics. As the AV
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“ An extremely challenging brief and topic, delivered in an intense and dramatic environment. Although delivered on a limited budget, and within a relatively confined space, the design team turned these apparent constraints to their benefit. The combined use of AV, imagery, and largeformat exhibition books force the visitor to engage on an intensely personal level. A compelling and engaging piece.” —Jury comment
footage is projected on a ceilingsuspended semi-translucent banner, visitors flip through the exhibition books, which employ a clean, bold layout designed to emphasize shocking statistics and little-known facts on human trafficking. Supporting graphics reinforce the widespread nature of modern trafficking and provide an analytical complement to the first-person voice of the AV. Upon exiting, visitors are encouraged to become abolitionists by taking a postcard from a series of tearaway books that, together, form the challenge, “Can you walk away?” and remind visitors they hold the power to eradicate modern slavery. Each postcard carries a bold statement on the front, and on the back, a means of taking action against this rapidly growing criminal industry.
Natural History Museum of Utah Natural History Museum of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah MERIT AWARD
Budget $103 million Project Area 168,000 sq. ft. (site 17 acres) Open Date November 2011 Design Ralph Appelbaum Associates exhibits, Ennead architects, GSBS architect of record, Infinite Scale brand, Poulin + Morris wayfinding signage, Design Workshop landscape design
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he Natural History Museum of Utah has created a remarkably integrated suite of design components: the Ennead-designed building nestled in the foothills of the Wasatch Range, 10 interconnected exhibitions designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates that resonate with the natural setting, an interior and exterior wayfinding program by Poulin + Morris, brand identity by Infinite Scale, and landscape architecture by Design Workshop. This work was possible through deep and long-term collaboration among the various designers and the museum’s creative and leadership teams. The 160,000-square-foot Rio Tinto Center uses a materials palette recalling Utah’s geological and mineralogical history. A richly colored stratigraphic surface of copper on the building’s
Media “ It seems obvious to say Boston Productions that the dinosaurs in the interactives, Frankly, Green exhibition are the heroes, +Web/Mediatrope Interactive but everything about the Studio trails/mobile media, installation keeps the visitor Northern Light Productions focused on the wonderful linear media, Ben Simonson specimens. The tectonic immersive soundscapes shapes of wall and platforms mirror the landscape that Fabrication surrounds the museum. The Maltbie Associates exhibition muted color palette, black fabrication and installation, and white photographic Big-D Construction general murals, and subtle material contractor and interior fit-out choices are what make this project distinctive.” Photos —Jury comment Stuart Ruckman, ©NHMU Chuck Choi
exterior references the mountainous landscape and the geophysical processes that created it. Three structural bays, organized along a central axis, reduce the perceived scale of the building and create a central, wedge-shaped public space referred to as the “canyon.” Inside, permanent exhibitions are organized as a system of trails, inviting visitors to choose their own paths through the space. Visitors experience the building as an unfolding, a series of discoveries of materiality and content. Artfully placed windows link the rich and varied exhibitions inside with the natural world outside, reconnecting visitors, again and again, with the natural landscapes that give the museum its purpose. (See full feature story in eg magazine, issue eg03.)
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Olson Olson Minneapolis
Budget Confidential Project Area 125,000 sq. ft. Open Date February 2012
MERIT AWARD
Design Gensler Design Team Bill Lyons principal in charge, Betsy Vohs project manager, Amy Barthel graphic design, illustration, signage, Jason Hall design director, Beth Nist interior design, Beth Mosenthal interior design, Kate Levine project architect, Mark Spencer technical director
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Fabrication SDDI fabrication and installation of signage and wayfinding, Pictura vinyl graphics, RJM general contractor, Mirror Wall paint, Danica Alder string artist, Sunrise Painting & Wallcovering, Inc. painting contractor Photos Pete Sieger Additional images, credits, and jury comments at www. segd.org.
t Olson, connection is all that counts. For creativity to become contagious, it must first be human. Slated to be the largest advertising agency in Minneapolis, the rapidly expanding firm enlisted Gensler to use Olson Brand Anthropology as the visual underpinning for its new 125,000-square-foot space in the city’s historic Ford Center building. A focus on client hospitality is at the forefront of Olson’s objectives. Olson and the Gensler team developed new strategies for an energized and comprehensive client experience. This includes Brand Rooms dedicated to key clients, client-focused food and beverage services, and integrated display systems that recognize visitors and boast Olson’s brand anthropology studies.
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“ The integrated graphics program is muscular and courageously aggressive. From a fragmented mirror wall in a stairwell to large-scale floor numbers created out of multicolored strings, the expressive moments of color and graphics speak to the bold personality of this firm.” —Jury comment
Gensler introduced Olson to an open office systems furniture solution based on a kit-of-parts that can support both collaborative and focused workgroups. As project teams and departments grow and evolve, Olson can easily reconfigure storage components and work surfaces to meet the needs of each individual, while incorporating ample collaborative meeting spaces throughout. Sustainable reclaimed and industrial materials connect the space to the rich history of the building, while an eclectic mix of found objects reflects the variety of perspectives and processes within Olson. Environmental graphics advance the architectural concept, becoming as essential to the experience as the walls they’re attached to.
Play Work Build National Building Museum Washington, D.C.
Budget Confidential Project Area 3,700 sq. ft. Open Date November 2012
MERIT AWARD
Design Rockwell Group Design Team David Rockwell principal in charge; Marc Hacker, Barry Richards, Shunyi Wu, Caroline Kim, Tomas Pedrasa, Na Zheng, Noah Winkler, Travis George, Caroline Hwang exhibition design; Donna Pallotta, Mary Knight, Liz Kauff, Claire Myers
“ Power and simplicity are the principal drivers in this design. There is a skillful balance at play here where the monochromatic threedimensional elements are in contrast to the color and activity of the kids. Thematically this is well Fabrication translated to a digital M.H. Stallman Company foam experience, too.” blocks, Dodge Chrome wall —Jury comment mural and graphic panels, General Imaging floor graphics, Great Mats modular playground floor tiles, Interface FLOR carpet tiles graphic design; Michael Dereskewicz, Morgan Moore model shop; James Tichenor, Joshua Walton, Zack Boka, Jeff Crouse, Keetra Dean Dixon, Jessica Edmiston, Hendrik Gerrits, Adi Marom interactive design
Photos Kevin Allen
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he National Building Museum’s exhibition PLAY.WORK.BUILD takes visitors through an investigation of the history of construction toys and block play, combining the museum’s unique architectural toy collection with the Rockwell Group’s Imagination Playground concept. The exhibition begins with a traditional gallery display culled from the museum’s collection of more than 2,300 sets of architectural and construction toys. The next gallery, which contains museum artifacts specifically focused on education, includes small-scale blue foam blocks designed by Rockwell Group. The walls of the third gallery are covered with Imagination Playground trademark blue foam material, and hundreds of large-scale blocks are available for interactive play. Visitors can either reimagine their small-scale buildings into over-sized structures or create something entirely new. The final gallery contains an interactive installation of virtual block play created by Rockwell’s LAB. Through this hands-on, interactive exhibition, families can experience the connection between early examples of imaginative play and its modern-day interpretation, gain an appreciation of its historical significance, and design their own course of play.
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Shop Life Tenement Museum New York
MERIT AWARD
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Open Date November 2012 Design Potion Design Team Jared Schiffman, Phillip Tiongson principals; Jonathan Bobrow, Steven Litt developers, Neo Barc design engineer, Caroline Oh designer, Allison Farber, Kacie Kinzer producers
hop Life exists at the intersection of culture and commerce. Working closely with the Tenement Museum, Potion designed an interactive counter where products tell the stories of the shops that once sold them. Shop Life is the first interactive installation ever incorporated into the historic museum. Potion’s design challenge was several-fold: create a unique experience within the educator-led tour, engineer an installation that disappeared into the vintage decor, and script a sequence that led visitors from tangible products to an understanding of the store’s role in immigrant neighborhoods. The installation is a 24-foot-long counter capable of hosting 15 visitors. Vintage products chosen by the visitors reveal photos, videos, maps, and oral histories that together tell the fascinating stories of Shop Life on the Lower East Side.
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Fabrication Kevin Groves furniture fabrication, architectural finishes Photos Potion
“ This engaging interactive allows visitors to handle objects and, by doing so, access information and explore their uses and historical context. This is a clever reversal of the usual object behind glass with an interpretive label; the tactile object is the key to the learning experience.” —Jury comment
Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York | Approximately 8,000 sq. ft. of Daktronics LED video technology. Named ‘2013 Facility of the Year’ by Sports Business Journal.
INSPIRING DESIGN WITH LED TECHNOLOGY “Daktronics has delivered incredible LED technology that will set Barclays Center apart from other sports and entertainment venues. The fans will be captivated by the imagery; and sponsors will be impressed by the branding capabilities that our LEDs offer.” Chip Foley Developer of Barclays Center Forest City Ratner Companies
Discover more inspiring LED video designs at www.daktronics.com/SuccessStories
www.daktronics.com
888-325-7446
commercial@daktronics.com
From Signs to Minds: Wayfinding Design and Mental Maps
Author Michaela Skiles (Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont) Instructor Jeff Howarth (thesis advisor)
JURY AWARD
H
ow can wayfinding signage be designed to not only help people get from one place to another, but also help them learn about the layout of their environment along the way? Michaela Skiles, a student at Middlebury College (Vermont) investigated this question through a two-stage project of design and evaluation, completed over the course of her undergraduate geography thesis and published in the Cartographic Journal. Informed by spatial cognition research and examples of existing guide signs around the world, Skiles created a style of directional sign that she predicted would facilitate spatial learning. Using FHWA guidelines as a foundation, these signs showed the intersecting roads and nearby towns in a simple map. Because maps require travelers to translate the information provided in a bird’s-eye
“ Research of this caliber and peer review deserves an acknowledgment, as it critically examines and advances the EGD field. The hypothesis questions a vital area of cartographic signage. Whether you agree or disagree, the study challenges certain assumptions about the way we navigate our environment and that makes analysis like this vitally important for EGD.” —Jury comment
perspective into an appropriate turn action, Skiles predicted that people would retain more spatial information through wayfinding with these signs than with conventional directional signs. In the experiment she developed to evaluate these signs, participants viewed a series of signs as if travelling through a fictional environment, making turn decisions at each junction to reach assigned goals. They then completed an unanticipated mapping task to demonstrate their understanding of the configuration of roads and towns. Participants viewing the signs with maps showed a significantly better understanding of the connectivity of roads and towns than those viewing the conventional sign types. These results suggest that simple maps on signs can help people learn about the layout of their environment incidentally during travel.
eg magazine — 59
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INSPIRATION (62)
A Life by Design
2013 SEGD Fellow Sue Gould: industrial designer, EGD pioneer, mentor, and role model (68)
Sketchbook
The sketchings of Ken Carbone: “5,000 pages of beginnings” (72)
Tomorrow’s Architect Mark Foster Gage says, “The modernists had steel and the elevator. Our generation’s innovation is digital.”
SECTION TITLE (Headline image: Lance Wyman) To Lance Wyman, FSEGD, Sue Gould and SEGD are synonymous. Gould has served as past president, a member of SEGD’s board of directors, conference chair, and many other roles for SEGD. She is also a long-time book reviewer for segdDESIGN and eg magazines.
2013 SEGD FELLOW SUE GOULD IS A DESIGNER, BUILDER, HISTORIAN, CALLIGRAPHER, MASTER CONNECTOR, ROLE MODEL, MENTOR, AND SELF-ADMITTED “NEW YORK CHEERLEADER.”
Sue Gould began her design career in 1967 working on the Man & Agriculture pavilion for Expo 67 in Montreal, then proceeded to help pioneer the field of environmental graphic design. An early specialist in themed graphics for shopping centers and an expert in signage for landmark buildings, she has been a master connector helping to build the SEGD community while nurturing her own New York design consultancy, Lebowitz | Gould | Design, to success. “When I think back to meeting Sue for the first time, it was several years after arriving in NY as a young designer,” says Jill Ayers, Creative Director for Design360 (New York). “This was the woman I had heard so much about—a critical player in shaping the field of EGD as well as SEGD’s early years. Sue is the consummate leader, participating in chapter events, ever supportive of our national conferences, and lending her expertise and support to the SEGD Board of Directors. “As an entry-level designer, it was reassuring to have a female role model in the industry to look up to. Many years later, I find myself working side by side with her in this profession, learning from her wisdom. Thank you for paving the way, Sue!” Gould was honored June 8 at a Fellows ceremony during the 2013 SEGD Conference in San Francisco. She spoke to eg magazine about her life in design.
62 — eg magazine
1988
The GE Building (“30 Rock”) was one of our first high-wall signage projects. Included in the conditions of GE’s purchase was the right to replace the RCA sign that had been on top of the building since 1937. This project put us on the map for rooftop signage and from there we did many others. I enjoyed a lot of time at landmark hearings and on ladders on the roofs of very tall buildings! (Fabrication: Universal Unlimited. Photos: James D’Addio)
1999
MacArthur Center in Norfolk, Va., was a Taubman Co. mall across the street from the General MacArthur memorial. Therefore, it was an explosion of stars and colors and stainless steel. (Fabrication: AGI. Photo: Susan Chait)
1999
Loews Miami Beach was a key project in the revival of South Beach. We were proud to create graphics in Art Deco character. (Photo: Lebowitz | Gould | Design)
1995
We did the late 80s update to the Hertz logo, their entire graphic standards book, a rollout to their facilities nationwide, and a “spectacular” on Times Square. Hertz was one of the first American companies to have a Times Square spectacular. It used miles of neon, a Tri-Vision changing image, and an LED digital message board. (Photo: Lebowitz | Gould | Design)
2000
Who would believe that a buttoned-up accounting firm like Ernst & Young would have a spectacular on Times Square? (Fabrication: North Shore Signs. Photo: Lebowitz | Gould | Design)
eg magazine — 63
SECTION TITLE “ Above all I think of Sue’s tireless dedication to the craft of EGD. Whatever cog in the process—from concept, to plan, to design and fabrication and installation, to evaluation and education, it interests her—and she is willing to go the distance to find sources for both knowledge and best practices. She was an early supporter of getting the industry involved in SEGD, since she knew designers needed their help and real partnership to produce quality results. She always advocated sharing what we have learned and she was a major influence in creating SEGD’s unique openness, generosity, and camaraderie.” —TRACY TURNER, TRACY TURNER DESIGN
When did you first know you wanted to be a designer?
I always drew. It was easy and fun and people were impressed. In addition, my father was in advertising and by the time I was 11 or 12, he had enlisted my help doing mechanicals and paste-ups for ads (using rubber cement, of course). He was advertising manager for a smokers’ accessory company, and my first exposure to the impact of dimensional graphics were the two life-sized polychrome wooden Indians that stood in the lobby of his company’s offices. My mother was a theater buff and took us to Broadway at an early age. Our next-door neighbor was a theater set designer and I was captivated by the small worlds of his set models. They inspired me to work on the stage crew, designing and building sets for our high school plays. I was an American Field Service exchange student to Denmark for my senior year in high school, matched with a family whose father was an advertising executive with the biggest ad agency in Copenhagen. My Danish brother studied at the London School of Typography and had an old monster Heidelberg letterpress in the basement. He designed stationery for me and printed it on this giant antique. My Danish mother was a sketch artist who did beautiful ink-and-brush drawings. We had drawing classes every Saturday in the living room and friends would come over and we’d take turns posing for each other. Their lifestyle really appealed. I thought, You can make a living and still have all this fun. Amazing!
What was your educational background?
I enrolled in the Industrial Design department at RISD, where Mark Harrison ran the first-year ID program. He was one of the first designers to develop products for the disabled, which impressed me, as both of my parents were seriously disabled. Mid-semester of my second year, I was expelled for “extracurricular activities” which made me very, very angry. The chairman of the ID department there, Pierre Kleykamp, though it was ridiculous and introduced me to his faculty friends at Parsons. They arranged for me to transfer there with all my credits. While waiting for the next semester to start, I worked at an ad agency housed in a printing company, and so learned offset press procedure (pre-computer) that summer, and ultimately graduated from Parsons with a B.A. in Industrial Design. I also
64 — eg magazine
got a B.S. from NYU at night because my folks thought it was important to have one. But the most significant schooling came a few years later, while I was teaching part-time at Parsons. With the opportunity of free credits, I took several graduate courses, including a big eye-opener for me, Experimental Psychology. Suddenly I could understand so many previously baffling visual phenomena, and I could explain to others why certain configurations work, and others don’t, based on real evidence and understanding of some of our neural processes.
Tell us how your design career got started.
After working summer jobs at Albrecht Goertz Design and George Nelson Associates (where I had the great good fortune to meet Lance Wyman), my first full-time job was in Montreal working for Gagnon-Valkus, a small firm contracted to design the Man & Agriculture pavilion for Expo 67. I was hired to help build models and conceptualize designs. It was a dream job. I think I made $85 a week. After a year, I came back to New York and began working freelance for both architectural and industrial design offices. I married another designer and moved to Connecticut where we opened a consulting business called the Connecticut Design Collaborative. Our first wayfinding project was for Mystic Seaport. That’s where I learned you can’t use acrylic outdoors in winter! I also began to understand how people read (and misread) maps. As a student, I had done calligraphy as piecework for clients like New York Life Insurance and other companies that gave out achievement certificates. I enjoyed this almost meditative work. Later, when I divorced and moved back to New York, calligraphy helped pay the rent.
Retail has also been a big part of your career, right?
The mid-70s, was a time of the flowering of shopping centers all over the country, and graphics were a big part of their theming. A lighting consultant asked me to work with him full-time. He was doing a lot of retail work and had great connections with several retail developers. I got heavily involved in this niche, often designing integrated interiors. Through this work I became involved with The Taubman Company, for whom we designed many projects. After several
2002
We created boardwalk kiosks for Coney Island. I love projects that require a lot of research, and we had access to the NYC Parks Departments’ entire photo archive. We found wonderful photographs of beach scenes that we used on the signs. (Fabrication: Kaltech, iZone Imaging. Photo: Lebowitz | Gould | Design)
2004
Our project for the Barracuda Restaurant in Brooklyn also included menus and other collateral. (Fabrication: Broadway National. Photo: Zina Zimmerman)
2005
We designed the signage system for Steiner Studios, at Brooklyn Navy Yard, in 2005, updated it in 2011, and are currently working on another expansion. (Fabrication: Design Communications Ltd. Photo: Dattner Architects)
2006-2012
Wayfinding and identity for the vertical campus of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan—6,000 square feet over 12 floors—was very challenging. (Fabrication: Signs & Decal. Photo: Lebowitz | Gould | Design)
2007
Westin’s Diplomat Landing (Fabrication: Design Communications Ltd. Photos: Lebowitz | Gould | Design)
2009
The Sky View Center in Flushing was the largest commercial project ever built in Queens. We used vertical LED sticks to follow the curvature of the undulating glass façade. (Fabrication: Sansi North America, Signs & Decal. Photo: Lebowitz | Gould | Design)
eg magazine — 65
Lehigh University by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Architects / Artwork: Larry Kirkland / photos: ©Craig Collins
years, I decided to work on my own. I bought a loft and hired a few talented ex-students and we got a lot of work. A major client was a developer who created a new brand, and we did stores, restaurants, packaging, and promotion for Pasta & Cheese all over New York. Around this time I also got connected with Hertz Corporation for signage work for their retail facilities all over the country.
How did Lebowitz | Gould come about?
In 1981, a fabricator who was doing some of the Hertz work for us introduced me to industrial designer Sam Lebowitz. Sam had recently gotten an RFP for a project that required retail experience, which he didn’t have. His lease had run out, I was tired of both living and working in my loft, and we decided to work together in a new space. At first we operated independently as a collaborative, but after a few joint projects, including the signage for the first Trump Tower in Manhattan, we decided to form a company together.
Who have been your biggest role models/influences as a designer?
The designers who have been most influential for me have all been polymaths: George Nelson, Massimo Vignelli, Charles and Ray Eames. There are no boundaries in their work—they do everything— industrial, interior, and graphic design. An early and strong influence on me was Jane Davis Doggett—one of the unsung heroes of our profession. In the few years I worked with her on Jacksonville Airport, Newark Airport, and others, she demonstrated how to educate bureaucrats and architects so that they understood issues of legibility and stepby-step wayfinding. I was awed as major clients like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey became her champions and friends rather than her adversaries.
How did you become involved in SEGD?
Fotoglas™ Architectural Glass
In the 1980s, I met Hanley Bloom of ASI. He was always talking about how great SEGD was and inviting me to conferences. Luckily, I was in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., in 1983 for a meeting with The Taubman Co. at the same time as SEGD’s conference at Cranbrook Academy of Art, just down the road. So I drove over to see what it was all about. I had a wonderful time, meeting a whole community of people who did the same things I did! I stayed for the day and of course, joined. I met so many people and learned so much. I helped organize an early conference in New York and we managed to wrangle a space at the UN. I had the VP of facilities at Hertz come to talk about integrating graphics into their facilities. Tracy Turner spoke about her travels and working with IM Pei on the first hotel she did in China. She was the first of us doing overseas work. Everybody felt very important learning about it.
What has SEGD meant to you?
It’s a real community. I find that wonderful. There is a level of trust and sharing that I have never experienced elsewhere in a professional setting. What I most enjoy about SEGD is walking into a bidders’ conference and seeing all my designer friends and we exchange hugs all around and ask about each other’s families. And the client sits with their mouth open and asks, “Do you mean you know each other?” And we say, “We not only know each other, we love each other!”
66 — eg magazine
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Ken Carbone Carbone Smolan Agency While working on the signage for the I.M Pei expansion at the Louvre in the late 1980s, I was shown Paul Gauguin’s personal journals, part of their collection. They contained drawings, letters, and writings as well as vintage photographs and news clippings. They were visually spectacular and inspired me to start making my own journals. Over the past 25 years they have become a chronicle of life, a reflection of the times we live in, and a collection of ideas and obsessive experimentation. Most of the time my work in these books has no commercial purpose. However, once I put something on a page, it is “locked” in my database of inspiration and often resurfaces at just right time for a project. I consider my collection of journals as 5,000 pages of “beginnings,” which is creatively liberating. On occasion I’ll use them to sketch out a specific concept. I like to challenge myself to find a solution to a problem within a single two-page spread. This constraint is both terrifying and exciting.
This spread shows almost 20 different quick ideas for the AIGA New York Chapter’s 30th Anniversary poster design. I chose the iconic slice of NY pizza as the strongest and most fun idea.
68 — eg magazine
Over the past 25 years I have filled 5,000 pages with my sketches. They have become a chronicle of the times we live in, and a collection of ideas and obsessive experimentation.
After the initial concept sketches, I painted this slice of pizza in gouache in my journal. Although I intended it to be a refined sketch, I liked the way it felt and decided to make a high-res scan of it and use it as final art.
eg magazine — 69
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eg magazine â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 71
UP
Gage/Clemenceau’s New York store design for Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga’s fashion director, fuses the genetics of architecture and fashion. Hundreds of robotically cut, mirrored facets hung from the ceilings and walls, producing endless reflections of the clothing. (Photo: Gage/Clemenceau)
CLOSE
Mark Foster Gage Mark Foster Gage has one foot in academia and the other in a new genre of architectural practice that combines theory with the innovative use of digital technology. The man Surface magazine called “Tomorrow’s Architect” is Assistant Dean and Associate Professor at the Yale University School of Architecture and Principal of New Yorkbased Gage/Clemenceau Architects. He’s leading a new generation of architects embedding advanced technologies into the spaces they design. Gage’s recent work includes a series of interactive installations for Intel, located in W Hotels, and store design and product collaborations with Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga’s fashion director. He is also the author of two books on aesthetic theory in architecture.
72 — eg magazine
Why does digital technology interest you? Every architectural generation has the innovation it wrestles with. Brunelleschi had perspective, the Modernists had steel and the elevator. Our innovation is digital. As a member of Generation X, I’m really the first to grow up with these technologies, so I have a fluency with them that makes it easier. I remember getting in trouble in second grade for constantly drawing Pac-man mazes in my school notebooks over and over—I was obsessed. I was there for Atari Pong, Intellivision, Coleco Visions Smurfs, the tragedy of Atari’s ET. Digital technology has defined a significant part of my life. It’s inescapable for me. Why is it important for you to embed technology in the spaces you design? Architecture as a starchitect-designed static form has had its day. What is a young architect today going to do—out-Frank Frank Gehry, or out-Zaha Zaha Hadid? Innovation can’t be about only doing weirder forms than yesterday’s weird forms. It’s about considering how architecture might be about the design of other ways we interface with the world. There’s no reason we all need to be starting at these dumb little screens for 10 hours a day. We can interface with information in thousands of ways—not just with our fingertips and eyeballs, but also with our bodies, our voices, our movements—in space. If architecture isn’t the discipline best suited to deal with these sorts of things, I don’t know what is.
What inspires you? Cable TV. I tell my students at Yale to watch more cable TV, too. There is so much expertise available on cable, or YouTube, or wherever for architects to adopt that it should be criminal. You could learn more about how to think progressively as an architect by watching “Orange County Choppers” or “Pimp My Ride” than you can from sitting in a classroom. Information is everywhere; architects need to learn to better absorb and apply it. What was the first thing you ever designed? A crossbow. I took a T-square from my mom’s sewing kit and looped rubber bands around the “T” part and shot crap at my little brother. I used that same T-square to draft cars—mostly limousines and Lincoln Town Cars. That T-square and Pac-man were probably signs that I was going to become a digitally-obsessed architect…. Fill in the blank: If I could just get my hands on ___________, I would totally redesign it. The architectural profession Fill in another blank: I couldn’t live without _____________ . Truman (my English Retriever) and cable TV I’d be fine without _____________. All Kardashians
NO. 06, 2013
NO. 06, 2013
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