Wayfinding Signs

This client runs a thriving stair-building business in Petaluma, California, installing classic wooden staircases in old houses in San Francisco and Santa Rosa. He was tired of hearing people tell him they couldn’t find his shop, so he called on me for ideas. I introduced to him the science of wayfinding, whereby signage is designed to guide, as well as attract, customers. Common examples of wayfinding are the signs guiding traffic into and out of airports (automobile traffic, that is; air traffic is still guided by a more ancient technology, word of mouth).

←We put this sign, 5' x 10', on the side facing the main road; it reads very easily from several hundred feet away. It’s enough to direct drivers onto the side street they need to take first.

These signs are at the entrance to the parking area at his back door and loading dock. Trucks continuing into this area see a “Deliveries” sign (not shown).→

←Continuing, the driver sees this one jutting out from the side of the building along the street. It informs him that he wants the next right.

Having made the right, the driver has to make his way down an alley between several active enterprises; two of these signs, mounted at the corners of sections of cyclone fence, guide him through the maze...→

...to the main entrance, marked by a 3' x 7' version of the road-side sign, and the office, unmistakable with its sign hanging from a wrought-iron bracket.
Classy building, isn’t it?



All signs painted on 1/2" or 3/4" MDO, using Avant Garde typeface and logo supplied by client.

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