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By Charleen
Catt Lyon
Wayfinding experts provide one of the most critical yet least examined
services involved in new facility design and renovation: creating a
comprehensive system of signage and graphics that helps visitors navigate
around and through a building.
Because guests represent a wide range of demographics, most wayfinding
signage is designed to be understood by non-English speakers. This is
especially true in sports and entertainment facilities, where large crowds
of fans with different skill levels must navigate their way between
concessions, restrooms and their seats.
But wayfinding signage does much more than guide people to key destinations.
In today’s modern sports venues, wayfinding signage not only provides
navigational information, but it often contributes to the overall image and
identity that a tenant professional sports team and a civic owner seek to
project. Wayfinding graphics are an integral part of the venue’s branding,
effectively communicating the identities of the tenant team and the city in
which the venue is located.
Ways to Wayfind
Whether it is during the design of a new venue or as part of a renovation,
there are many ways to incorporate subtle and often overlooked graphic
elements into a sports facility. A simple way to accomplish this and to
project a sense of identity is to integrate wayfinding into the facility
through distinctive colors, fonts, brand marks, sign furniture, shapes and
lighting.
When it officially opened on March 30, 2008, Nationals Park, the new home
for the Washington Nationals, became the latest example of how professional
sports facilities are using signage to help build the fan experience. This
ballpark also illustrates a growing trend in wayfinding design — signage
that helps promote the tenant team’s and facility owner’s future and
celebrates their respective pasts.
Because Nationals Park features architecture with sleek lines, metallic
finishes and pale coloration, the ballpark does not have a built-in sense of
nostalgia and history that fans experience when attending a game at, say,
Wrigley Field. In this case, the blank slate demanded that other elements be
designed to celebrate Washington, D.C. ’s rich baseball history, while at
the same time emphasizing the team’s future. That’s where the wayfinding
system came in.
Colors. Signage colors can play an important role in developing the overall
look and feel of a stadium, arena or ballpark. For a consultant designer or
a facility manager, this means more than simply reflecting the home team’s
colors in the signage.
For example, at Nationals Park, Catt Lyon Design and Wayfinding Consultants
included certain distinctive colors thought– fully and purposefully in the
signage. Red, white, blue, gold and tan were selected to incorporate the
existing Nationals’ graphic standards, but were also used to contrast with
the white, light gray and tan present in the ballpark’s architecture.
Rich colors can create a sense of nostalgia that many team owners want and
many fans demand. At Nationals Park, the use of rich, saturated colors not
only makes reference to D.C.’s old Griffith Stadium, but also serves to make
the signs more legible against the pale shades of concrete block and
pre-cast concrete used by the architects.
Fonts and brand marks. In addition to color, a vintage typeface can be
incorporated into wayfinding to easily and effectively lend a nostalgic and
dramatic flair to signage. A word of caution, though: The font selected must
not only be historic-looking, it must also be legible.
When designing the signage for Nationals Park, a font called Cushing was
selected from among 15 other font types. Cushing was an ideal fit because of
its legibility and similarity to historic-looking fonts seen on handbills
and posters of the post–World War I era.
The classic “W” brand mark originally used by the Washington Senators was
also revamped. The insignia was surrounded by a diamond shape to represent
the baseball diamond and the shape of the District of Columbia. This
treatment also enhanced the logo’s legibility and provided for interesting
ways to light a large branding sign located on the south, riverfront facade
of the ballpark.
Sign furniture. A unique style for the sign furniture — the structure that
holds up wayfinding sign faces — provides an ideal way to brand a stadium.
While sign furniture can be freestanding, mounted to the wall or hung from
the ceiling, it must always provide structural support.
Sign furniture can also be considered an extension of the building, similar
to light fixtures and decorative railings. This may include unique shapes,
interesting joinery, special paint finishes and other details that make it
distinctive.
One example can be found at Nationals Park’s Homeplate Gate, a major
wayfinding decision point where most fans enter the ballpark. The sign
features two wayfinding panels splayed off a central post, similar to
signage designed in the post-WWI era.
Lighting. Lighting signage properly is critical to its success. When it came
to lighting the ballpark’s major signage, the designers and owners agreed
that nothing was as inviting as neon. Catt Lyon Design and Wayfinding
selected warm shades of glowing exposed neon for the gates and the large
sign located on the south facade of Nationals Park. Doing so makes the sign
visible from great distances, including from airplanes that land at Reagan
National Airport at night. In addition, the neon accentuates the historic
character of the signs.
In many cases, neon lighting is being replaced with more energy-efficient
and lower-maintenance lighting technologies, such as LED. As with any kind
of lighting decision, facility managers should weigh the benefits of each
technology from both a cost and maintenance standpoint, as well as from a
branding standpoint.
Additional considerations. Other considerations facility managers should
take into account to create the overall look and feel of their venue
include:
• Creating distinctive landmarks within the stadium through signage can
develop into
meeting spots for fans, and help give fans a sense of place.
• Anticipating where the sportscasters will stand for the 6 o’clock
news, and building
signage that helps to frame that picture, is an important
strategy to
building instant recognition by the
TV audience.
• Specifying materials and finishes that will stand up to the elements
will ensure that the facility’s signage maintains its beauty, functionality
and
distinctive design for years to come.
Finding Their Way Back
Fans want to feel at home in their stadium. Against the blank canvas of a
modern stadium,
 compelling wayfinding signage becomes one of the few ways to
meet that need. Colors, fonts, brand marks, sign furniture and lighting are
all great ways to incorporate distinctive character into way- finding
signage and graphics. Even though these details seem minor, they combine to
create wayfinding graphics that reflect and support a sport team’s and
community’s identity, as well as create a sense of place, in an otherwise
neutral venue.
Yes, wayfinding experts have one of the most critical and least examined
tasks in designing a facility: the responsibility of creating a
comprehensive system of signage and graphics that will navigate visitors
through the facility. Ultimately, the wayfinding and graphics created within
a venue reflect the personality of the tenant team and the owner community,
and enhance the facility’s ability to contribute to a fan’s experience. In
other words, they keep fans coming back for more.
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Charleen Catt Lyon is design principal and majority owner of Catt Lyon Design
and Wayfinding, a full service, multidisciplinary graphic communications firm
with offices in New York City and Cincinnati. The firm works with facility
managers, owners, developers, tenants, architects, construction managers and
planners throughout the United States to develop branding graphics and
wayfinding systems for large, complex projects, particularly for
events-oriented facilities.
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