Thoughtfully crafted wayfinding and branding play an essential role in creating positive experiences for your school’s students, staff, and visitors.
Navigating through sprawling educational institutions can be challenging, especially for newcomers. In today’s competitive landscape of educational institutions, well-designed school signage systems can help you to reinforce your school’s brand identity and lead the way.
Below, we will explore the intersection of wayfinding and branding, and how educational institutions like yours can leverage directional signage to communicate your brand identity vibrantly and successfully.
1. Help visitors navigate with ease.
At its core, wayfinding helps people get from Point A to Point B. It includes the strategic placement of signage or other visual clues around a space that guides people from one area to the next, adding to their comfort and reducing stress and frustration. That’s important, but don’t underestimate the other powerful opportunities these signage systems can deliver.
2. Strengthen and communicate your school’s brand identity.
Building your school’s brand took thought, time, and effort. A brand identity is more than just a logo. It contains your school’s core values, personality, mission, and unique qualities. Your brand identity boils down to how your core audience feels about and interacts with your school. Wayfinding signage can impact the way that your guests feel about being on your campus and navigating your buildings. By meeting branding with wayfinding signage, you’re seizing on an excellent opportunity to reinforce your brand identity and provide seamless self-guidance for your most important stakeholders.
3. Start with a brand audit.
Align your brand identity and wayfinding design by conducting a brand audit to distill your brand’s key elements. Use your brand’s established logo, typography, colors, and graphics as the foundation for yours school signage system. Prominently displaying your logo across signage reinforces familiarity.
4. Maintain consistency.
Use your brand colors, typography, and messaging consistently across all school signage. This will help your wayfinding design feel cohesive across your campus. The use of consistent colors and typography will serve to reinforce your school’s voice and identity and help visitors to experience familiarity. Incorporate taglines or develop a campaign ahead of creating your signage to include inspirational messaging that can serve to educate or entertain your guests. Be sure to keep everything consistent regarding the tone and voice of your college or university.
5. Focus on the details.
Once you are working from an established brand kit, you want to ensure that your signs are not just eye-catching but explicit. Larger sans-serif fonts can be easier to read. Consider this against the fonts used in your branding. You can still be consistent while bending a few rules in the name of usability. Remember honoring both your brand and wayfinding signage can be a balance. The signage must be clear, easy to follow, and reinforce your brand.
6. Don’t forget the maintenance.
Once you have your signage situated, ensure that it stays in top condition. Your wayfinding signage is a reflection of your brand and can improve or detract from the user experience. Ensure that tattered or aging signage is replaced. Update any signage that needs to be changed in order to make the navigational experience of your guests more enjoyable and seamless. If you undergo a brand rehaul, you will also need to update your signage to reflect and reinforce your new effort.
The strategic combination of wayfinding and branding can make an elevated impression on every student and visitor. It offers a way to visually communicate your brand’s values and mission while inspiring a sense of pride and belonging among those who walk your halls or campus. You leave them with not only a stress-free navigational experience but a lasting impression of what you and your school represent.
Let’s create a memorable and visually cohesive environment together. Contact us today to discuss how we can transform your directional signage into a powerful tool that enhances your school’s image and leaves a lasting positive impression on students, staff, and visitors.
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