New Directions for Exterior Wayfinding

It was late at night. I had been to a meeting at a local university, and finding the correct building from the parking lot had been enough of a challenge when the sun was out. Now that darkness had fallen, the return trip had been even more of a challenge. I couldn’t easily retrace my steps from earlier that evening, as it had been a circuitous route of trial and error. All the buildings looked the same, fences had been erected haphazardly, and walkways ended abruptly at precipitous drops into ravines. It was a cross between an M.C. Escher image and the Winchester Mystery House. This was also a couple of years before smartphones and Google Maps, when we often had to rely on our wits to get places—or try to—and what struck me most about blundering around the campus in search of Parking Lot B was the virtually complete lack of signage, specifically wayfinding signage. If not for a helpful student who wandered along, I might still be there.

If you’ve ever had to visit a university campus, a corporate park, a medical center, or a company’s vast complex of buildings, you know how easy it is to get lost. Back in the June issue of Wide Format Imaging, I wrote about the importance of interior wayfinding, but no less important—and perhaps even more so—is exterior wayfinding.

There are obvious differences between interior and exterior wayfinding—one goes inside and one goes outside—but there are very big differences in how they are produced, what materials can be used, and the regulations covering their design and placement.

Head Out on the Highway

Perhaps the most familiar forms of exterior wayfinding signage are traffic signs, most notably those big, green highway signs that tell what exits are coming up. Other types of traffic signs include route indicators, speed limit signs, various arrows, and all the other street and highway signs we depend on to know where we’re going and to regulate rights of way so that the roadways don’t become big demolition derbies. These signs are not the kind of thing a general commercial printer or sign shop is going to be producing, but there is a 390-page publication called Standard Highway Signs that complements the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), the Federal rulebook that governs traffic lights, signage, and other vehicle and pedestrian control mechanisms. These are publications of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and can be found at mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov.

The Standard Highway Signs document comprises more than 300 pages of specifications and measurements for every conceivable street sign: how wide the letters have to be, what the arrow style should be, how text and icons should be aligned, and so forth. Federal guidelines also specify parameters for reflectivity so as to ensure that street signs can be read at night in the glare of a car’s headlights—be they the relatively dim headlights on older cars, high beams, or the retina-frying lamps found on newer vehicles. The regulations are ever-evolving, as new research improves sign readability and as automakers develop new types of headlights. New sign reflectivity rules have also gone into effect for a demographic reason: there are more older drivers on the road. According to the Federal Highway Administration, the number of drivers over the age of 70 increased 48 percent from 1990 to 2006, and in 2006, 10.6 percent of drivers were over 70. As the Baby Boomers continue to age, those numbers will only increase, and directional signage specifications—at least on the Federal level—is trying to take that into account to make signage easier to read by older eyes, not for comfort and convenience, but for safety.

Looking for Adventure

While most printers are not going to get involved in producing that kind of signage, very similar concerns—and some regulations—exist for “private” exterior wayfinding signage. Clarity and readability are essential concerns when creating exterior signage; the sign must be easily and quickly read and interpreted. If you’ve ever crept down the street squinting to make out house or building numbers to the frustration of those behind you, you understand part of the problem. This also plays into safety in that the sign must not pose a traffic safety hazard. And the sign must be aesthetically harmonious with its surroundings. This last point can have more of an impact on exterior wayfinding signage than you would think.

FastSigns of Ft. Myers, FL, specializes in both interior and exterior wayfinding signage and has identified other major differences between the two.

“The main difference is the dollar amount of the projects,” said Paul Hill, owner of FastSigns of Ft. Myers. “When you get into exterior wayfinding, you’re getting into much bigger signage as opposed to the interior. What we call ‘monument’ signs—directional signs—are expensive, but they’re necessary for identification purposes.”

Another main difference is that exterior wayfinding is typically not the kind of thing you can print on your in-house printer—not even a big industrial flatbed. “We don’t manufacture the signs themselves,” said Hill. FastSigns of Ft. Myers works with Charleston Industries, which does the actual manufacturing. “We do the design the work and we lay it out. We design them, they build them, and we install them.” The reason for this tag-team approach is that exterior wayfinding is a much more demanding application than other types of signage—even other types of outdoor graphics.

“These [signs] are made out of aluminum or stainless steel, and they’re power-coated so they withstand outside conditions, won’t rust, and things like that,” said Hill. “You need a true manufacturing facility to do things like that, which would be beyond our capabilities. There’s not enough of that kind of business to justify that.”

And Whatever Comes My Way

But the business that can come can be big. A year and a half ago, Hill’s FastSigns franchise was contracted to produce all the exterior wayfinding signage for the world headquarters of Chico’s—the women’s apparel retail chain—which is based in Ft. Myers. The campus comprises 17 buildings spread out over approximately 20 acres. Thus, there was a need for good wayfinding. “The problem became giving people directions or telling them where to go, or what building to go to because each building housed a different function of the world headquarters,” said Hill. “‘We’re in Building Number 10.’ ‘Where is Building Number 10?’” Chico’s is a growing company, which means that the buildings are in constant flux and the signage needs to keep up—thus, a lot of repeat business.

“Probably every other month we’re making changes,” said Hill. “There are a total of 14 or 16 wayfinding signs on that campus, and they’re constantly evolving because the company continues to grow. When they move departments from one building to another, they need us to go out there and change the signs.” The retailer also recently bought some additional buildings on an adjacent property—which will need its own wayfinding signage.

As we often see among sign shops, one type of project can lead to another. When Chico’s built a new 150,000-square foot facility, they approached Hill and asked if he’d be interested in doing all the interior as well as exterior signs. They also recently completed another set of exterior signs for Chico’s distribution facility in Florida.

Smoke, Lightning, and Heavy Metal Thunder

Geography plays a very large role in exterior signage. In Florida, exterior signage needs to survive everything from harsh sun to torrential rains and, on occasion, hurricane-strength winds, so wind mitigation is a concern when installing exterior signs. In other parts of the country, such as upstate New York, freezing cold and pummeling blizzards can take a toll on signs. In parts of the Midwest, tornadoes are a concern. These environmental issues aren’t just to safeguard the signs, but also to protect people and property. Think about the damage that a detached aluminum sign whipping around in a hurricane or tornado could do. A lot of these safety considerations are spelled out in the various municipal ordinances that often tightly regulate exterior signage.

In the June feature on interior wayfinding, I pointed out that to be successful, potential wayfinding signage producers need to be well-versed in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and how it applies to signage. Outside, the ADA doesn’t really come into play, except in the case of handicapped parking spaces and related signage. Instead, exterior wayfinding signage producers need know all the various municipal regulations controlling signage—which, depending on the area, can be substantial.

“We deal with about six different municipalities, and some are a lot more lenient than others,” said Hill. “We know we can do this kind of sign in Municipality A, but would never be allowed in Municipality B.”

Signmakers also need to apply for a permit before erecting a sign, which will or will not be granted depending on a combination of structural and aesthetic considerations. In some cases, a sign isn’t allowed to exceed a certain percentage—say, 10 percent—of a building’s overall frontage. So if a building’s façade is 50 feet wide and 20 feet high, that’s 1,000 square feet of frontage, which means the sign can’t exceed 100 square feet. For wayfinding signage, that should be sufficient, but more commercial signage can run afoul of the authorities. Regulations also specify where signage can and can’t be located relative to roadways and other public thoroughfares. “You need a good knowledge of what is and what isn’t allowed,” said Hill. You can’t just place a sign anywhere—or at least not without consequences. “People have done that, and the county or city comes out and says you need a permit, or you can’t put the sign there. It can be pretty embarrassing.” There are other practical concerns; when installing freestanding signs on posts that go in the ground, you need to ensure that the digging doesn’t hit phone lines, gas lines, water lines, and so forth. “Call before you dig,” advises Hill.

The exception to these kinds of city and county regulations is a closed campus, like Chico’s, said Hill. “As long as it’s within a campus setting, you don’t need to worry about permits. However, if it goes outside the campus bounds and it’s on right of ways, you do need to know where you can locate the sign and what the requirements are.”

Other structural considerations regulate the hardware used to fasten the sign to a surface so it doesn’t easily detach, becoming ineffective as signage at best, and a safety hazard at worst.

Then there are some municipalities that, ostensibly for quality-of-community issues, more closely control the aesthetics of a sign. “We have a community down here that is looking to pass a new ordinance on signage regulating color,” said Hill. “You’ll only allowed one primary color and one secondary color on your sign. That’s ridiculous.”

Get Your Motor Running

As with interior, exterior wayfinding requires that you really do your homework. Acquiring the knowledge to successfully produce and install exterior wayfinding can be a fairly high barrier to entry, but like many barriers to entry, can provide substantial opportunities. “The nice part about these projects is they’re nice high-dollar projects,” said Hill. “They’re time-consuming, but the end result is usually good. It also helps us establish a relationship with that customer.” And, as Hill found, doing a good job on one particular aspect—like exterior wayfinding—can lead to other business with that customer.