Environmental graphic design firm specializing in wayfinding systems, sign design and more
We here at Visual Communications have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. And we’re proud to announce what we consider to be the icing on the cake for a fantastic year in wayfinding design. Visual Communications has been awarded 1st place in the 2011 USSC Sign Design Competition for the following two projects:
On December 3, 2011 we received the award at Sign World International in Atlantic City, NJ during the United States Sign
Council AnnualMembership Meeting (where our projects were on display). We also get the honor of having our projects featured in the full color 2012 USSC Calendar.
Special thanks go to those directly responsible for the winning projects:
We’d also like to thank the USSC as well as all those we have worked with on wayfinding design over the last year. We appreciate all the support and are looking forward to an equally productive year in 2012!
We here at Visual Communications are ecstatic over a very special project — the NorthPoint Health and Wellness center in Minneapolis Minnesota. This project is of extra importance due to the inclusion of Hablamos Juntos, a project focusing on servicing the linguistic needs in healthcare for a growing Latino population.
Hablamos Juntos, which receives funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is administered by the UCSF Fresno Center for Medical Education & Research.
Wayfinding Design for MultiCultural, MultiLingual Communites
Now, it’s important to note that Spanish was not the only language considered in the environmental signage we provided for NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center. In fact, we designed detailed directories in key locations that are translated into 10 different languages.
We also made great use of straightforward pictograms that included pictures and icons easily recognized by people of all cultures.
The result? Another successful project for Visual Communications, Inc.!
Great news—Recently Visual Communications was chosen to be featured in Graphic Design in Architecture, a wonderful book put out by Design Media Publishing Ltd that highlights the importance graphics play in the overall architecture of a given locale.
The Project
Visual Communications was chosen for the 2010 wayfinding design project we handled for City of Mound/Mound Harbor District. This locale offered a host of challenges as it deals with a multimodal community that includes:
This large undertaking found us using over 30 unique signs that included:
The Team
Of course, it takes a well-functioning team to pull off a job of this magnitude. Having said that, we would like to commend everyone who had a hand in the City of Mound wayfinding design project. They are:
Each played an important role in making this job a reality.
An Additional Honor
Not only does Graphic Design in Architecture highlight our Mound Harbor District project, but it also features the words and knowledge of Visual Communications, Inc. Creative Director Richard Lang. The book’s editors chose Richard to pen the preface, sharing what he feels are the most important points of wayfinding design and environmental signage.
Get a Copy Today
Interested in more information about the project? Want to get your hands on a copy of the book to read our Creative Director’s introduction? Or perhaps you would like to see photographs of the Mound Harbor District? If so, find Graphic Design in Architecture on Amazon.com today!
From medieval times, when warring clans used animal blood and vegetable dyes to decorate flags before heading into battle, banners have served as a visual-communication. They’ve perpetually loomed as a cornerstone for signshops that emphasize vinyl fabrication. According to the 2009 Commercial State of the Industry Report (see ST, August 2010, page 62), 92.8% of shops that produce non-electric signs fabricate banners, and banners represent 19.9% of all commercial sign sales (among high-volume shops that gross more than $500,000 of sales annually, that percentage grows to 23.8%). Ever-improving materials, inks, RIPs and color profiles have enabled providers to deliver more vivid, crisp prints that can be installed in more varied environments.
Sure, there will always be a market for 4 x 8-ft. “Sale Today” or “Grand Opening” banners designed with black, Helvetica letters. Such a job’s price point is simply what fits some customers’ modest bottom lines. However, some customers thankfully take the maxim, “A business with no sign is a sign of no business,” to a higher level with dynamic, soft-sided signage – often well integrated with broader environmental-graphic programs that feature signage, wayfinding and other signage elements.
Visual Communications (St. Paul, MN) created a banner and signage more
Other recent improvements at the medical center include renovation of existing inpatient psychiatric
units, including the addition of 15 new inpatient psychiatry beds; renovation of the inpatient
Pediatrics unit; construction of a new express care team center in the Emergency Department; and
renovation and expansion of the mental health crisis center.
Signs of the times
New signs are being installed around campus over the next eight weeks. More than 25 new signs will be installed as part of an exterior signage plan created to help patients, families, and visitors get to where they are going. There will be new entrance signs, traffic control signs, and landmark campus signs. Some will replace current signs and others will be new. Along with improving wayfinding by helping people get to the right main entrance, the new signs will have the updated logo and address information and increase the general visibility of the hospital to the thousands of people who drive by and walk through the campus every day.