01/24/2025
Have you ever been confused or lost trying to find a room or sports facility on campus? That’s because of poor signage. And with over 100 new students displaced by the LA fires, and safety and evacuation concerns, knowing how to find your way isn’t just a matter of minimizing stress, it can also be a matter of life and death.
So this week in Media Arts, our Graphic Design students started learning about sign design.
Before you dismiss this as a frivolous art project, consider the life-changing importance of knowing how to get somewhere with the least amount of confusion:
✅ Poor freeway signage can lead to longer communtes, more traffic, and life-altering accidents.
✅ Lack of clarity confuses customers who can’t find your business, and results in a loss of revenue
✅ At schools or work, a lack of clear labeling and directions adds stress and extra time to where we need to go, and can hinder first responders in an emergency where even a few minutes or seconds of delay can mean the difference between life and death.
A core value of Media Arts classes is how to make learning real, purposeful, and interdisciplinary. In our Graphic Design class, we’re studying wayfinding–signs that help us orient ourselves, get directions, and determine the services/contents of a space. This intersection of art, science and psychology requires students to think beyond themselves, to empathize with an end user of their work (a visitor, a first responder, a person with a disability, someone who doesn’t speak English, etc.) and create signage that works for multiple stakeholders.
We love this project because it’s technically easy to do and empowers students to apply our curriculum to the real world in order to help others.
The images here are from a challenge to design a sign that labels a spaceport viewing platform for tourists. We’ll get to signs for Mira Costa next week. Designs by Naomi Steiner (), Mac Lamkin, and Zach Nolan.
