The Design of Airport Signage
While traveling through Schiphol Airport a month ago I couldn’t stop but notice how clear all the signage was. I remembered having an college about a few years ago. Mijksenaar has been responsible for signage at Schiphol Airport since 1990.
When designing signage for a Airport or a other public building you have to take a good notice of the visual surroundings the signage will be placed in. The backgound colors of walls and windows, the amount daylight let in the building, the lighting and more environmental elements are important when designing signage for a aiport. In a visual crowed environment it is important that signage design stands out to its background, for a maximum effect. Use a color system with not to many variations and be consistant with the color usage. Think about using illumnated signs to enhanche the readability of the signage.
Colors are coupled to certain types of information. Yellow signs provide information on arrivals and departures, for example, while blue signs refer to shopping and restaurant-café facilities, anthracite to waiting areas, and green to escape routes.
Mijksenaar used the following Principles for designing the signage:
- Good contrast of bright yellow and green colored signs in a neutral environment
- The use of circular black arrows in a white circle, which contrast with a colored background
- Illuminated lightboxes placed throughout the area
- Consistency of highly visible suspended signs viewable from a great distance
- Signs located in the center of the flow and not to the side
- Signs perpendicular, rather than parallel, to the flow
Mijksenaar stressed that font, color coding and pictograms should be considered only after research has been completed, and the system has been mapped out in the most efficient, sensible way possible. He suggests the following for effective use of design elements:
- Color coding: Color should make sense and clearly communicate an information category.
- Terminology: Assume that visitors know nothing about the facility and use terminology that is easily understandable to everyone.
- Fonts: Don’t use more than one font, and stick to such sans-serif typefaces as Frutiger, Clearview, Gill or Meta.
- Pictograms: Don’t rely too much on pictograms; supplement with text, especially with less familiar functions.
Filed under: Design | 14 Comments
Design / Marketing / Psychology 
The signage is very important in an airport, sometimes you are in late and can’find your gate because in some airports the signage is so confusing.
Agod signage can save a lot of time.
It would have saved me a lot of anguish had I learned much sooner.
You won’t think so once you discover a few favorite recipes. Form a paste made from crushed garlic to help cure a nosebleed.
With better oxygen flow to the liver, you’ll have a stronger, healthier liver. Proper hydration aids in the digestion and assimilation of foods and the transport of molecules throughout the body. Now imagine what your body looks like and functions like with that same kind of effect.
Piece of writing writing is also a excitement, if you
know afterward you can write otherwise it is complex to write.
Pharmaceutical companies have spent years and probably billions of dollars trying to create safe synthetic anti-inflammatories and COX-2
inhibitors. Nowadays, Chinese people can buy fresh vegetables in the market the whole year long; however, twenty or thirty years ago, in winter, because of the
very cold weather, it was difficult to find fresh seasonal vegetables apart from winter grows.
Ginger tea is getting more popular, as it has wonderful health benefits and many
people love its taste.
Right now it appears like WordPress is the preferred blogging platform out
there right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re using on your blog?
I know this web site gives quality depending articles and
other material, is there any other website which offers
these stuff in quality?
I know this web page offers quality depending content and additional
stuff, is there any other site which provides these kinds of data in quality?
It is really a nice and helpful piece of information. I’m glad that you shared this useful information with us.
Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
An outstanding share! I have just forwarded this onto a coworker who was
doing a little research on this. And he in fact bought me lunch
simply because I found it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this….
Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending the time to discuss this subject here
on your internet site.