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What Is Environmental Graphic Design?

Our need to hear and be heard, see and be seen, touch and be touched, that is, to communicate with our fellow humans, is fundamental to our well-being and, indeed, our survival.

Long before paper was invented, humans made marks on objects, such as cave walls, in their surrounding environment. The intent of making these marks, or signs, was to communicate information visually. This communication imbued these marks with meaning and they became a shared language among the people who made and understood them. (See Figures 1.1 and 1.2.) As such, environmental graphic design, or EGD, which can be defined as the graphic communication of information in the built environment, is one of the world's oldest professions.

1.1 Before the written word, graphics communicated information and recorded events, as in these cave paintings at Lascaux, France.

1.2 Environmental graphics from ancient Rome.

And you thought something else was.

Since the invention of paper and the electronic screen, most people think of graphic communication as taking place primarily in those two media. But just like early humans making meaningful marks on environmental objects, in the present era an enormous amount of information is communicated on signs and other objects located in the built environment.

The contemporary incarnation of EGD is a relatively new, cross-disciplinary field that has gained recognition and importance over the past 40 years. Sure, signs existed prior to that point, but they tended to pop up in an ad hoc, unplanned, almost reactionary manner-in other words, pretty much as an afterthought. (See Figures 1.3 and 1.4.) As cities grew and mobility increased, making the built environment more complex, people's need for information to better understand, navigate, and use their surroundings also grew. Simultaneously, technological developments, such as photomechanical reproduction techniques and computer-driven cutting devices, aided accurate large-scale rendition of graphic elements, such as typefaces and symbols, on signs. Thus, the need for proactive, systematically planned, visually unified signage and wayfinding programs emerged.

1.3 A collection of ad hoc signs in Greece.

1.4 Unplanned and uncontrolled signage in a building lobby.

If you don't think EGD is important, ask yourself: Could you understand how to use a large international airport or an urban rail transit system if there were no signs at all, or if the signs were a disparate mishmash of messages, graphics, and physical forms? The answer is most definitively no! As such, contemporary signage and wayfinding programs give a singular, unified voice to an environment or a site within it.

Looking to the future, there has been much speculation whether mobile computer devices with digital mapping and augmented reality applications will spell the end of physical signs. We say no, for many reasons, two of which are: Physical signs don't need a mobile device, signal, or battery power to operate; and not everyone is equipped with mobile computer devices. While there's no doubt that the various wayfinding applications on such devices have enhanced the way millions of people navigate the built environment-and will continue to do so-the word enhance is key. Our belief is that physical signs are here to stay, and that mobile digital devices offer rich opportunities for augmenting the communication function of those physical signs. More about digital communication systems, including mobile devices, appears later in this chapter and in Chapter 6, "The Hardware System."

To underscore the relative youth of EGD as a field, consider that the terms environmental graphics, signage, and wayfinding were barely in use 40 years ago. In fact, the word signage, whose origins are attributed to Canadian designer Paul Arthur, didn't even appear in U.S. dictionaries until the 1980s. Nevertheless, in the 1970s, a group of designers found themselves designing graphics for a coordinated group of signs rather than for print. And because they often worked in architectural offices, and their design work related to architectural spaces, their work product was often referred to as architectural graphics or architectural signing.

These architectural graphic designers realized that there were significant differences between their design and print design (digital design didn't exist then)-most notably that architectural graphics encompassed the planning and communication of information on three-dimensional (3D) objects in the built environment, which is far more complex than designing a two-dimensional printed piece, such as a poster, book, or brochure. As these architectural graphic designers discovered each other and the commonalties of their professional interests, they joined together to form the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers (SEGD). The words relating to SEGD were slightly changed several years ago to the "Society for Environmental Graphic Design" to focus on the field rather than its practitioners, and changed again in 2014 to the "Society for Experiential Graphic Design."

With the birth of the SEGD, the term environmental graphics replaced architectural graphics, for two reasons. First, architectural was viewed as too limiting, in that this form of graphic design is often geared toward nonarchitectural open spaces, such as roadways, cities, theme parks, and so on-that is, the larger sphere of the built environment. Second, the term architectural graphics could be confused with the drawings architects create to document their building designs.

SEGD

The SEGD (Society for Experiential Graphic Design) is a global community of professionals who create experiences that connect people to place. Through educational programs, its website www.SEGD.org, publications, and research, SEGD's mission is to provide learning opportunities and resources for professionals involved in Environmental and Experiential Graphic Design (EGD/XGD), promote the importance of the discipline in establishing place, and continue to refine standards of practice for the field. SEGD members are leading developers of wayfinding programs; placemaking and identity projects; immersive media environments; exhibition and experience designs; and design research, strategy, and planning.

SEGD, 1000 Vermont Ave., Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005, 202.638.5555,www.segd.org

As noted above, in 2014 the SEGD changed the referential word for the "E" in "SEGD" to "Experiential" to broaden the SEGD member base. This has created some confusion and consternation as to what EGD activity is, particularly in the context of this book. As with the first edition, EGD is considered to focus on environmental graphic design, that is, the design of graphics in the built environment.

Regardless of whether the "E" refers to "environmental" or "experiential," the SEGD has grown to become the premier professional organization for all designers who practice EGD. And signage is now in the dictionary.

The Spectrum of EGD Activity

We've established that contemporary EGD activity involves the development of a systematic, informationally-cohesive, and visually unified graphic communication system for a given site within the built environment. Such sites can range from a single building to a complex of buildings to a city or to a transportation network connecting multiple sites on a regional or national scope-all of which have complex communication needs. EGD can respond to those environmental communication needs in three distinct but often overlapping arenas. As shown in Figure 1.5, these have been identified by one of our colleagues, Wayne Hunt, as:

1.5 The three main components of EGD and how they can overlap.

• Signage and wayfinding, which orients people to a site and helps them navigate it.
• Interpretation, which tells a story about a site.
• Placemaking, which creates a distinctive image for a site.

Although this book focuses on physical signage and wayfinding design-and in particular static, nonelectronic signage-the above three communication facets of EGD and their interaction apply to both the physical and digital realms, and warrant a bit more exploration.

Signage and Wayfinding

Signage and wayfinding are most commonly expressed in unified sign programs that informationally and visually knit together a site, a collection of related sites, such as regional parks or global corporate facilities; or networks, such as a transportation system. Examples of signage and wayfinding programs are shown in the Gallery section at the end of this book, as well as throughout this chapter and others in the book. In the sense that well-designed sign programs serve to visually unify a site, signage can perform a placemaking role by establishing a unique identity and sense of place, thereby creating a brand image in environmental form. (See Figures 1.6 and 1.7.) In addition to wayfinding and placemaking roles, signage programs can also communicate other kinds of information, such as warning, operational, and interpretive...