Movement project: signage system

After visiting the exhibition we needed to pick up items, we are going to work on. Each of us selected one thing that he liked the most and that's what we have so far:

• Organised layout. Throughout the exhibition it is hard not to notice the fact that each poster, letter and sketch is carefully created and has a simple structure, with all the key thoughts highlighted.

• House of Cards. Simply because the idea is brilliant and we all like its' interactivity.

• Appreciation of everyday objects. As I've already said Eamses were crazy about objects, especially hand-crafted. They used basic items to illustrate the design principles (going back to the House of Cards).

The hard thing about Eames's work is that, basically, their values were very close to ours: accesability of information, simplicity, interactivity and etc. That's why we didn't want to work on the work from the exhibition (like chairs or films), instead of that we thought that it will be nice to use processess and ideas behind the showpieces to create our own piece.

When starting a project, weeks ago, we had a rough idea to redesign things that can be found around Chelsea. For example there is only one map on campus and it is extremely uninformative, it only shows the blocks locations. That's why a lot of first year students were really struggling during the first weeks: they just didn't know how to get to different studios.

However, creating a map out of nothing in four days is an insane idea, there's just no way to do it in that period of time as good as we want to. So we decided to go in a small steps and start with a signage system.

Signs around the college now are OK. Most of them gives you an information you need, but others are out of date, leads you nowhere or contradict themselves. We wondered around a little bit and took pictures, it actually was really funny, to notice how many wrong signs there are.

Of course we are not going to redesign all the boards, we decided to focus on a certain amount of places, that each student needs to go to from time to time: library, workshops, canteen, reprographics, lecture theatre, shops, photography studio, digital studio and etc.

As a next step we need to think of how and what we want to change about them? We want them to be more attractive, to be simple and beautiful, functional and appealing. What fonts should we use? What colors? Arrows?

My main concern for now is that we will go too much into information design and end up with doing a dull traditional signs with text and directions, that will get out dated once upon a time like the current ones. Of course, the main aim of the sign is to name the place and point the direction with an arrow, I understand that. But I want to move from an old signs meaning and turn our work into something that will encourage people to explore the building, something that will convey an unique sence of each place. For example: the library. What are your associations with it?

Endless shelves, tons of books, silence, comfortable chairs, small labels on each book, pages, texts and pictures.

How can that be communicated through a sign? By recreating of the book texture? Or close up photo of an text? Or by laid out books that whispers you: Go there, find us, read us, turn the pages over. You'll never have this experience reading from your stupid Kindle.

This kind of idea is really close to Eames's way of thinking. All those places should be appreciated, as well as the objects in them. They are a part of learning process, they provide us an opportunities to grow. They deserve a better representation, than just an arrow, saying where to go.

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