Charnwood Campus approached us to design, produce and install a full suite of outdoor wayfinding and decorative graphics for the entire 70 acre site. Charnwood Campus is a science-focussed business park set within beautiful grounds with lush green plants, ponds, lakes and trees. The large site is home to over 20 buildings and a network of roads and car parking for both staff and visitors.
Their new branding roll-out required us to deliver a full suite of outdoor wayfinding to cover the existing graphics, plus new, additional directional signage and decorative graphics. We aligned our designs to their company brand guidelines, using specific colour references and type faces with consideration to future signage planning.
Our design team began by studying the site plan and making several site visits to catalogue the existing signage and assign positions for the new wayfinding. Some old signage was moved to more prominent locations to create a connecting flow of directional information.
We plan a wayfinding strategy based on the five core wayfinding principles. It is important that visitors can read the signage quickly and identify which information they need at that moment. For Charnwood, our creative team designed the outdoor wayfinding signage to be a different colour to information signage. This made the wayfinding instantly recognisable, so when a visitor is looking for directions, they will become familiar with the type of sign that will give them that information and seek it.
Monolith signage was used for roadside information and information because it can be easily seen and read. Much of this was already in position, so we designed new vinyl to wrap the metal face.
Car parking information, warnings, instructions and notices such as these are described as information signage. They look different to the outdoor wayfinding and we actively designed them this way.
Charnwood Campus is set in beautifully landscaped grounds and is full of beautiful paths and walkways between the buildings. The carparks are situated on the front of the site, with limited parking beside buildings. This layout means that staff and guests will have to walk to their location. We designed a beautifully subtle matte black finger post with a striking flask of the brand’s lime green around the edge. This style offered an unimposing signage design with enough vibrancy to grab attention. The fingers themselves were powder-coated in the bright green with a matte black vinyl face. This provides better longevity for the graphics rather than applying a slim green vinyl to the edge.
We designed and installed a large window graphic to the connecting glass corridor to identify the building as the ‘Nucleus’. The central building on the site. This glass structure was known to get very extremely hot in the summer months, so we recommended a solar film to reflect the heat and keep it cool. A decorative window graphic was fitted to the outside of the glazing.
We created a full colour-coded site, split into four sections. This system was incorporated in the outdoor wayfinding to help visitors locate their building. The colour coding system was used on all building signage, carparks and wayfinding to be consistent across the site.
If you’re looking for a company to design, produce and install your outdoor wayfinding, the contact our team today 01332 613900 or fill in the form below.
EMMA – SENIOR CREATIVE