Using arrows as graphic devices to give directions isn’t so much an art as a science
Where are you going? I
don’t mean in the metaphysical sense
– that’s too deep for right now. I
mean do you know what direction you’re facing, where you should be heading, that sort of thing? When did you last glance at a sign or a map?
Some people have what’s called a ‘good sense
of direction’. This isn’t because of any freakish internal compass, at least not
normally. It’s really down to a process of dead reckoning;
keeping rough track of direction, turns, distance and so on, generally
without all that much conscious effort. It isn’t hard, although it can really catch you out if you’re used to relying on it and something throws you off. But no matter
how good you are at this, you’ll
still appreciate a decent directional sign every now and then:
North. Way Out. Express Lane. Front. Embarkment.
Ticket Office. Home. This is all the realm of signage, the stuff that helps
us get where we want to be – at least if it’s done right.
If
you’re taking a road trip in America, the Three-Way Directional Road Sign does warn you that you’re approaching a three-way junction, but gives you no clue where you’ll end up if you take one of those routes – so which lane should you
be in?
As usual, there’s an underlying reason for why
I go off on these tangents, and today
it’s because of a particular routemarking challenge. The task at hand is signage for a student show in college. It’s a one-day event, a kind of
pop-up show that’s being held in a
far-flung room a bit of a walk away from the main entrance. Posters have been designed that say what the show is, what the college is and what room
it’s in, but that’s not going to help
anyone once they’re through the college entrance. Take it from me; half the students would be hard-pushed to find room M401 even if they’ve
been there three years! If you’re new
to the place, you’ll definitely need help.
So what are the options?
The
minimalist arrows in this Calvert/ Kinneir road sign
leave you in no doubt about
where you’re heading
How about student ‘ambassador’ guides, waiting
at the entrance to walk visitors up
the main stairs, past the entrance to
the Tower block and through the ‘Upper Street’ gallery, across the Well gallery to the Design block, through
the Atrium space (itself a gallery of
work at the moment), around to the partially hidden lifts in the Media block, and up to the fourth floor? I’m not kidding,
that really is the route – and if you
haven’t done it before, it’s every
bit as maze-like as it sounds. No, although student guides would help, it
would be far too labour intensive to be practical. What’s needed is a set of signs to keep people on the right route without full-blown active assistance. Arrows are the norm for this kind of thing, but the question then is what kind
of arrow?
Road signage is a good place to turn for codified information symbols, especially ones to do with routes. The arrows used in map-style road signs, the kind that show the
route with solid strokes, are as
minimal as they come. They’re simply whittleddown pointed ends of the basic road lines themselves,
with no flared barbs or other
adornment. As an indicator of direction, these do the job well: no clutter and an understated implication of continued direction rather than being a more overt pointer.
Other arrows that point towards places without showing the road itself have proper arrowheads, and chevronsare arrowheads without the main shaft at all. So, if I was looking for a ready-made solution I’d be
no closer to the answer.
With
the sign for a roundabout, a literal take on the design (left)
focuses on the roundabout itself, while the Calvert/Kinneir UK graphic system (right) concentrates on the process of driving
around the roundabout, which
is actually what the sign is about
Road signs can be pretty damn confusing,
although the UK’s system, designed by
Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert between 1957 and 1961, is largely a model of clarity. (Calvert considers the current
developments of the designs to be
increasingly ‘sloppy’, but it remains
clear and effective.) For a great example
of a sign that’s likely to confuse, look
no further than the American Three-Way Directional Road Sign (inset), a text-free diamond that has branching arrows pointing left, straight
ahead and right. So, which do you take? Erm…
However, this is a classic example of me
getting too bogged down in the
details. The need is for
simple direction indicators to keep people going in the right direction. The students already have their posters, so teaming those with a selection of arrows
showing the way to go is the
simplest solution. Nobody
wants to have to work through a prose description of a route.
The main staircase is the first challenge.
From the entrance visitors can either
walk straight past or up the steps.
The signs can’t be right by this, so a general angled arrow could mean either route. Fortunately, a fun bit of visual logic led to an answer: an arrow with a few
right-angled steps in the shaft is a
simple and effective solution to showing which route to take. Well, at this
point it looks like it will be effective, but we’ll see.
Signposting the route through the Upper Street
gallery at the top of the stairs is a
particularly difficult one. The problem
is having no available surface for a
poster, let alone an additional arrow.
That’s going to take some serious
thought. If it was allowed, I’d be tempted to suggest creating a distorted arrow on the floor, in the style of the elongated arrows seen painted on roads all over the country. This kind of anamorphic projection produces roughly correct-looking results when seen from a driver’s
perspective, but when looked at in
the flat, they look pretty strange. The precise distortion used for these is painstakingly worked out, as shown by the
engineering-style documents at
bit.ly/trafficsigndrawings, the
official Department for Transport’s
‘traffic sign working drawings’
collection.
This
exhibition (right) was located
in a room in the depths of the
college, making it a challenge to create directions for visitors. This arrow (left) indicates that you have to go up the stairs
Like I said, I’d be sorely tempted to try something like this, but not without lots of planning and official permission.
Road
markings such as traffic lane arrows are distorted so they’re seen correctly from a driver’s perspective; the precise distortion used is detailed in the
Department of Transport’s
‘traffic sign workng drawings’ collection
