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Wayfinding Design – Digital & Ergonomic Signage Design
Wayfinding is much more than just signs.
Wayfinding design works with the architecture, landscape, digital information, landmarks & other visual cues such as lighting, interaction with staff and other people all as a cohesive, well-planned system. Our output is a carefully crafted solution that works harmoniously with the visual language of your brand but delivers the functional need to help people find their way. We can adapt to challenges faced by a variety of sectors and industries, thanks to our 40 years industry experience. Our team are ergonomic and digital signage experts and are skilled at combining beauty with functionality and efficiency, to bring spaces to life.
Our wayfinding offer has a focus on two key areas, Strategy and Design. We see the wayfinding strategy as being a key component of the vision to help users find spaces and moments where they can pause, dwell, and make a connection to your site and its brand. Wayfinding must help visitors in finding their way both from a navigational perspective but also in their exploration of your environment. Our strategy defines the digital and physical principles for naming, content hierarchy, use of language (tone of voice) and pictograms, product types, updatability, the use of landmarks, response to the architecture and ways to help visitors simplify spaces with methods such as zoning, colour coding and numerical sequencing. By defining your wayfinding strategy, we can create user centred and inclusive design solutions that have been derived from real world needs and wants, allowing us to avoid design by assumption.
Our creative process starts by defining your design narrative, just like a piece of art, a good wayfinding system needs a story and a rationale behind the concept. This might be obvious, subtle, or abstract, but a clear narrative provides sound reasoning that strengthens the design. We openly share creative ideas, our influences, and the opportunists as we see them; sketches, swatch boards (colours, materials, forms & shapes) and benchmark examples are collated to build mood-board visuals that catches our team’s thoughts for open discussion and review. By adopting a collaborative approach, we refine our concept solutions into a complete product family for signage: including graphic assets, colour swatches, layout grids, panel sizes, footprints, and recommended material specifications. Typically, our work culminates with the creation of a bespoke Kit of Parts report, this essential guidance document is used as a basis to support the future growth and roll-out of your wayfinding scheme.
Highlight Case Study – Wayfinding Design
National Maritime Museum
To support the opening of four new galleries opening in September 2018, Mima were contracted by Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) to understand the holistic visitor experience, which would inform the development and design a new wayfinding scheme for National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.
Our output is a carefully crafted solution that works harmoniously with the visual language of your brand but delivers the functional need to help people find their way.
People – Wayfinding Design
Chris Girling
Head of Wayfinding
A Director at Mima, for over 10 years Chris has delivered a diverse range of large-scale multilingual wayfinding systems for a number of high-profile international clients. Key sectors have covered rail, aviation, stadia and education. Project highlights include a large Metro system in the Middle East, the London 2012 Games and the University of York.
Louis Bailey
Middleweight Wayfinding Designer
A graduate of University of West London with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design, Louis has a passion for typography and information design and is always working to develop his skillset.
Darren Clarke
Senior Wayfinding Designer
Darren has over 12 years of experience working on a broad range of environments including retail, transport, education and the arts sectors. He graduated in Graphic Design from London Metropolitan University and has since specialised in applying information graphics to the built environment.
Chris Davies
Wayfinding Designer
A graduate of Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design, Chris has years of experience working in the Retail Design sector specialising in customer wayfinding and brand consistency. His previous work includes being a key member in the rebranding and rollout of a well-known supermarket chain across the British Isles and abroad.
Rosie Smith
Senior Wayfinding Designer
Rosie brings over 10 years’ experience to the Mima Wayfinding team and has worked within a variety of sectors including the urban realm, transport, commercial and residential. Rosie’s expertise lies in developing wayfinding strategies for complex environments as well as producing graphic communications for the built environment.
Jennie Stewart
Junior Wayfinding Designer
Jennie has a degree in Music from York University and is also a graduate of Kingston School of Art where she obtained a degree in Graphic Design.
Jennie has a particular interest in exhibition design and typography, and her previous experience includes working with a large firm of architects in central London as well as designing for exhibitions at an events management company.
Danny Young
Senior Wayfinding Designer
Danny has 15 years of agency experience working in the design industry. Initially, he worked in the sports marketing sector, creating brands and designing publications for the world's largest sports brands. Over the past decade, he has produced wayfinding standards for major transport projects in places as diverse as Bangalore, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney, Tel Aviv and Riyadh. He graduated from the University of the Arts London with a BA Hons in Graphic Design.
