way finding design developed

 Having looked at a range of ideas through hand rendered experimentation I focused on two ideas I got during this experimenting. One, a thin line arrow idea with block text underneath, using just black to go with black walls. Two, this block arrow design which holds the type within yet bleeds out of the black arrow head while still being legible for the audience.

I felt that using colour could strengthen my idea, so looked at the colours used already within the gallery, it is a bright place with white walls so that the pieces within the gallery have full attention and stand out to the viewer, this meant I had to be subtle if I used colour so to not take any attention from the work. I looked at the colours used within the leeds city gallery logo, which was this dark mint green, I found it was used for many Leeds City cultural buildings, so thought the signs should use the same colour to keep consistency. I then realised that there should be one colour for general building signage and another for exhibitions and pieces of work within the gallery which lead me to look at the exhibitions which the gallery runs, currently there is just one, The British Art Show, this takes up most of the gallery so would need a full set of wayfinding signs. I chose to stick with the colour already used by The British art show, an orange which is not to striking, Above I began to play with these.

I found I could only use the colour scheme effectively on the block arrow head design, the colours got a bit lost within the thin arrow design, so I decided to ask my peers for there opinion in which they compared the thin arrow idea to the whitney rebrand, saying it was similar to this which is not a bad thing but not what I want to come across if people saw. My peers responded positively to the block arrow design and agreed with the use of the colours and were positive about my choice of colours, seeing the reasons behind choosing them. I decided to go further into the Block Arrow design to see how it would look.

I kept the shape consistent so that if they needed they could be slot next to one and other if they were to be placed side by side within the gallery. I also formed my own pictograms which I found the building way finding signs (Right) needed more than the exhibition signs did. Again I showed my peers these and another positive reaction to the use of colours and the clearness of the sign in a range of different sizes, legibility and simplicity is key to this design so that the coloured arrows don't make it to loud and take away attention from the work within.