Article: Sign Language

First published in Hospital Development, Feb, 1999.

Jim Davies reports on the sensitive wayfinding solutions employed at Birmingham's recently-completed children's hospital, which serves users of many ages and nationalities.

   Signage programmes, along with the oft-cited traintimetable, constitute one of the most challenging commissions for the graphic designer. We're not talking about a carefully targeted corporate brochure here, which knows exactly who it's talking to and will generally enjoy the lifespan of a gnat, but an eminently functional, often permanent, system of graphic marks which is designed to be used by all sorts of people, from all sorts of backgrounds, 24-hours a day, every day of the year.

   In the- case of a large institution, a signage system should literally become part of the furniture, obvious and accessible, without being overwhelming or detrimental to the overall vision of the architect or interior designer. It's a classic case of form following function; signage, above all, must work effectively; aesthetic considerations, though integral to the whole, come in a distant second.

   Planning and implementing hospital signage is more demanding than most. Patients or visitors arrive at a strange place they've probably never been to before, and they are often distraught, distracted or disorientated. They simply want to get where they need to be as quickly and efficiently as possible. They have enough on their minds without the added frustration of getting lost in a never-ending maze of seemingly identical corridors.

   Such was the task facing the London-based creative group Assorted Images when it was appointed to develop a permanent signage system for the state-of-the-art Diana Princess of Wales Children's Hospital Birmingham, which was officially opened by the Queen on 30 October last year.

   As if this wasn't daunting enough, there were several additional complications peculiar to the project. The signage needed to be comprehensible to children and adults alike, as well as to the diverse, multi-cultural users of the hospital. The community local to the hospital uses eight principal languages which, apart from English, include Gujurati, Bengali, Hindi, Chinese, Arabic, Punjabi and Urdu (see pic, below). The programme also had to take into account the possible visual impairment and other disabilities of visitors to the hospital. To give some idea of the extraordinary scale of the task, there are some 1600 rooms at the hospital, requiring around 9000 signs.

   Then there was the question of the relationship between the hospital and its users to be considered. As a critical and highly visible part of the hospital's overall identity, what kind of image and tone of voice was the system trying to project? After a series of briefing meetings with the hospital's senior management, including chief executive Colin Hough and Alix Moore, the head of organisational development and commissioning, Assorted Images' managing director Kasper de Graaf managed to distil it into a useful phrase: "Friendliness and simplicity without condescension".

   "For historical reasons, hospital signage usually speaks in an impersonal, institutional language," explains de Graaf. "Signs in department stores are more obviously planned to be customer-focused, that is, to appeal to people. But their job is essentially the same - to help large numbers of people find their way to numerous destinations with the minimum of fuss. So we've consciously rejected organisational terms in favour of human ones: `First Floor' instead of `Level One', 'Refreshments' instead of `Beverage Point'."

   With the experience of having designed the signposting and environmental graphics for the Schools' Entrance and Basement (housing the children's galleries) at the Science Museum in South Kensington behind him, Assorted Images' design chief Norman Hathaway was in a position to push his ideas further with the more complex requirements of the children's hospital.

   The starting point was creating a custom typeface, which was intended to be highly legible, but also child-friendly. 'Fruit' is actually based on a typeface developed specifically to teach children to read, which uses elements from handwriting. This gives it a warm, 'human' feel, compared to others which appear more clinical and machine-generated. "The typeface uses large punctuation marks and dyslexia-proof characters," explains Hathaway.

   A series of commissioned picture icons by the Japanese children's illustrator Satoshi Kitamura, (whose finest moments include fabulous board books for children, such as `Cat is Sleepy') were developed to work in conjunction with the special typeface (see pics opposite). These clearly but humourously represent essential services such as toilets, stairs, lifts, refreshments, baby changing facilities, and so on. Kitamura also created various arrows and floor numbers, which serve to further soften the more functional aspect of the signage.

   "Hospitals can be frightening places for kids," says Hathaway. "Signage and graphics can make them feel more secure." The icons also, of course, work effectively across languages, and in addition, a series of way-finding booklets in seven different languages was developed to support the signage system. The main 'Welcome' sign at the hospital entrance actually greets visitors in all eight languages (see pic, opposite).

   Each floor of the hospital was designated a specific colour (lower ground - green, ground blue, first floor - purple, second floor - orange, third floor - grey, fourth floor yellow). This colour coding was adhered to wherever possible; on wall stair/lift directories, for example, which outline what departments are positioned on which floor, floor numbers in the appropriate colours are positioned next to the listing. Wall mounted reminders pointing the way to wards and departments also use the floor colour as background. Fastening strips used to house slatted signage were also painted in the relevant colour. Another nice touch is the fact that these metal strips don't always line up top and bottom, lending a slightly anarchic, noninstitutional feel to the signage. "They are Meccano-like, custommade fastenings in bright colours," says Hathaway, adding: "and they're cheap."

   Above all, the system needed to be flexible, with clearly defined categories of signs for way-finding, departmental needs, services and general information. Natural wooden slats and panels were fixed to suspended and wall mounted metal strips for wayfinding signage while aluminium signage was used to denote the different departments. Aluminium discs were used for all the 'services' signs. For the most part, the graphics were screen printed. Assorted Images provided detailed design and manufacturing specifications for all signs, working closely with architects Powell Moya to ensure sympathetic co-ordination with the interiors scheme.

   As a kind of after-sales service, Assorted Images prepared computer templates so that temporary notices and operational requirements could be catered for inhouse by the hospital's administration staff as and when they became necessary. Instructions on dayto-day maintenance and updating were also provided - if more information needs to be included at a later date or departments shift location, this can be readily accommodated within the framework of this flexible system.

   So the Diana Princess of Wales Children's Hospital now has a progressive signage system to match its status and aspirations for the 21st century. What does the client think? "Assorted Images worked closely with us to come up with designs for a system that is child-friendly, visually exciting and complements the decor and architecture of the building," said Alix Moore. "Their attention to detail and finish has resulted in a system that meets all the objectives of the project specification". You can't say fairer than that. Now which way is out?

By Jim Davies

© Wilmington Publishing Ltd. Feb 1999