Even Fans Need to Eat

As part of our work at MetLife Stadium, the home of the NFL's New York Giants and New York Jets, we were asked to create a set of iconic signs to identify the stadium's concessions. The goal was to evoke the jumbled energy of New York's streetscape on a limited budget in the span of a few months. No problem!

Drawing from our experience at Citi Field, we were familiar with different methods of capturing fans attention in the hustle and bustle of the game day environment. Armed with the stadium's seven offerings, from burgers and hot dogs to cheesesteaks and a delicatessen, we jumped into design. Working closely with concessionaires at Delaware North, we were able to visually connect their food concepts to the iconic regional food offerings that inspired their menus by studying historic and contemporary photos of the Jersey Shore's classic boardwalks, Coney Island's Astroland, and New York City's Lower East Side. The greatest challenge was defining the typographic character and color palette for each option. How do you capture the energy of those locations in a single panel?

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8 Million Stories, 32 Reasons, 1 Big Apple App

Photo credit: Film still from The Naked City

"There are 8 million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them." That iconic phrase gravely ended each episode of Naked City, the gritty black-and-white late '50s crime drama and precursor to Law and Order, CSI, NYPD Blue, and others of that ilk. Each week the show presented a story of one New Yorker and his or her untimely end. It captured the mood of the city, the glamor, the grime, the excitement, the fun, the fear – the way that people inhabit the city, how they interact, how they lived, and yes, how they died. There are so many stories in New York, just make a trip to work, to dinner, to a show, to a ball game, and you'll see them happening live and in color on the streets, every minute of every day. It's what brought me here, it's what brings so many of us here - we want to write our own New York story.

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Signage vs. Wayfinding

Most everyone understands very quickly what “signage” is, even if they haven’t used the term themselves: signage comprises all the types of signs that appear within a given building or other discrete environment, such as a public park or an office complex. 

An identification sign is one type of signage that tells you the name of a place, space or room; an orientation sign – usually a panel or kiosk with a map on it – is another type that gives you “you are here” information; a regulatorysign that says “no smoking” or “wheelchair access”– is a third type. 

A “wayfinding” system, on the other hand, is more complex and may involve multiple media. A wayfinding system comprises communications that have been designed together to help people navigate a given environment. In addition to the forms, colors, messages, symbols and graphic design of signs, a wayfinding system may include other kinds of environmental graphics and tools: online maps, floor or wall treatments, printed directions, artwork and other visual cues, specific language that staff are trained to use to give directions verbally, or even a custom developed application for a smartphone.

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A New Home For Our Growing Green Materials Library

Part of Two Twelve's longstanding environmental mission has been to encourage our designers to incorporate "green" materials and production methods in the design process.  Our EGD (environmental graphic design) teams typically specify materials and fabrication methods for the signs they design, and physical building product samples allow us to best understand the various aesthetic and physical properties of the many choices on the market. When we first started our Green Library in 2005, there were only a few "eco-friendly" products on the market that were appropriate for signage. We originally created a labeling system for each material to describe its basic "green" qualities. Over the years, we have acquired a larger collection of materials with the ever-increasing number of products available on the market. Simultaneously, the vocabulary to describe qualities and facets with regard to sustainability has also grown.

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From Verona to Vegas: The Success of an International Design Collaboration

Some of the greatest rewards of our work come from collaborating with specialized consultant teams, as well as from being challenged to find solutions to new design problems.

A recently completed project, The Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, has proved to be rewarding on both fronts. Designed by David M. Schwartz Architects, the Smith Center's grand public spaces are finished, floors and walls, in hues of polished marble from Testi Fratelli, one of Italy's best known stone wholesalers. The Testi family founded the company in the 1920's, when ox-drawn carts were used to transport the marble blocks hewn from its two quarries in the Verona province. Today Testi Fratelli offers a wider and more modern variety of stone products and services, several of which were put to the test on the Smith Center project.

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Assessing The Design Concept: The Importance of Prototyping

More often than not, we design environmental graphics in front of a desktop computer and in relation to architectural elevations drawn to scale. Our specifications for materials are derived from previous experience and what we have samples of in the studio. But we all know that what looks good on paper may not always look good in the space. If we are able to stay on the design path long enough, and the project budget allows for it, we can do what's truly most useful to assess the quality of a design concept:  prototyping. 

In environmental graphic design, prototyping is producing one or more samples of a sign or structural design concept at actual size, often using specified materials and production methods, and ideally conducting an on-site evaluation of its design attributes. Through prototyping, we can accurately tell if we've designed something to the right size, if the words are legible, if the material functions as anticipated, the colors work well in the lighting conditions, and so forth.

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New Signage Program Opens at Bayhealth Medical Center Expansion

Our environmental graphic design team recently had the pleasure of attending the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Bayhealth Kent General Phase II Expansion in Dover, Delaware. For me, the Senior Designer of the new wayfinding system for this hospital addition project, the opening represented the culmination of three years of dedicated work, enjoyable professional relationships, and steadfast collaboration among project partners. There was a sense of excitement in the air as we got our first glimpses of newly installed exterior and interior signs simultaneously.

As we toured the impressive new space, it was fulfilling to see the seamless integration of our signs in to the new environment. The design elements of our sign system took a cue from aspects of the patient-centered architecture by the Philadelphia-based architects, EwingCole, featuring curved forms and translucent finishes. Our custom-designed directional and room signs, formed from compressed acrylic, create a luminous effect and complement the building aesthetic.

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