Case study
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Wayfinding Development:
MacEwan University: Center for Arts & Culture (CAC) building
Architectural Team (building structure):
http://manascisaac.com/work/macewan-university-centre-for-arts-and-culture
Designed by: Team Green Dream Team
Amanda Ozga, Alex Milo, Jerran Madill, Megan Hoskin, Brennen Halliwell
Research & Analysis
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History
Communities
The primary audience includes:
Arts & Cultural management students,
communication students,
fine arts students,
music students,
theatre students,
design studies students.
The secondary audience includes:
Visitors,
Staff members,
other MacEwan students.
Words Defining Culture of a
Fine Arts Campus
Fine Arts Campus
Bold - Quirky - Eccentric - Experimental - Innovative - Big - Bigger than life - Consuming - Zany - Awesome - Exaggerated - Surreal - Uncanny - Sublime -
Superb - Glorious - Beauty - Expression - Impressive - Cultural - Taste
Foot Traffic
Strategy
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Personas
The Personas are a very important aspect in the design process. They helped us to make sure that we are always designing for the user of the space, and not let our own biases drive our design.
These circulation paths correlate to the personas introduced. They are important
because they show what the user experiences in an average day.
Circulation Paths of Personas
Emergency Egress
Design Goal
Our design goal is to create a wayfinding system that has a self-standing identity, which pulls inspiration from the rest of MacEwan, while staying different. The wayfinding will also pull inspiration from the building's users who are creatives within unique and bold disciplines, such as design and music. The way finding aims to creatively use the space while remaining informative.
The building has unique and creative users, and we want the way finding of the building to highlight and showcase this attribute. The building is host to a very different demographic than those in the rest of MacEwan’s building, and we want our system to reflect this.
Programming & Design
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Inspiration
As a group, we created a Pinterest board which we all contributed ideas too. After dumping a bunch of ideas onto the board, we each went through and picked our two favourites, and then looked at all the commonalities we found in our top choices. All the images we selected all featured unique way-finding designs with big blocks of bold colours; these were all things we took into consideration while designing our system.
A big factor in the shapes we utilised in our system was the architecture used in the building. We actually pulled the exact shapes used in the skylights on the roof, and the shapes of the open areas inside the building. These shapes were then used as the shapes for our signs, and as inspiration for our infographics.
Identity
The new identity we decided upon for this system we feel fits both the building and its users. The greens and greys are inspired by the colours used in the exterior of the building, with the orange and yellows serving as contrasting colours. We liked the idea of working in some orange to tie back to the current MacEwan building. According to colour psychology, green evokes a sense of refreshment, balance, and harmony. Students generally have a stressful workload and their school lives are chaotic and stressful. The green was chosen to create a relaxing environment to counter their stress.
Entrance Signage
Elevator Signage
Room Signage
Washroom Signage
Staircase Signage
Hallway Design
Pylon Sign: interactive
Overhead Navigational Signage
Wall Navigation
Cascading Terrace Signage
Iconography
Potential Technology
Fabrication & Install
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Elevations
Sign Type Outline
Conclusion
In summary, we as a team wanted to design a way finding system integrating both creativity and inspiration into everyday use. We wanted the system to showcase the building's users, as well as create a space which students would want to not only come to, but to stay, and work on their new and exciting projects. We created a system and a space which is both lively and inspiring.
We want this building to be a ‘breath of fresh air’ that everyone can enjoy and draw inspiration from.