Monday, May 28, 2012

Signage... do we design around them or include them?!

Signage … how much thought is put into signage when designing architectural ‘featured’ buildings.

These days, signage takes over. My question to those doing signage applications daily is:
Do you design your building taking into consideration where the sign would be placed, or do you design a building out of signage?

I came across a few interesting photos of signage that took over the building… if I can state it this way. 


"In These Stones, Horizons Sing’. Written in both Welsh and English, this sentence makes a bold statement on the facade of the Wales Millennium Center in Cardiff."


"The Minnaert Building, designed by Neutelings Riedijk and added to Utrecht University in 1997, uses the letters in ‘Minnaert’ to form columns, making them essential structural supports for the section of the building that juts out over a bicycle parking area."


"Fukutake House, a project started by seven of Japan’s leading art galleries, brings art to rural communities that tend to be isolated from it. Occupying a new location each year, Fukutake House reinvents itself annually, but its 2010 incarnation was more stunning than ever with a typographic installation covering the facade of the elementary school that the festival temporarily occupied."


"Though it may seem a bit sensationalistic, the word ‘TERROR’, which features prominently on the building’s overhanging roof, is a fitting name for a building with a horrifying history that is unfortunately all too real. Budapest’s House of Terror occupies 60 Andrassy Street, a building that was once leased by Hungarian Nazis and also housed two Communist organizations. All three used the basement as a torture chamber, and many people died there. When the sun hits it just right, the cutout in the metal overhang casts a sobering reminder of the building’s history upon its facade."

These are some of the buildings featured on the web page and is really something to look at.
Next time, take a few minutes before slapping a signage board on a prominent facade.
They made the marriage between signs and buildings possible so why can't we do the same.

2 comments:

  1. These are all valid questions. I guess an appropriate answer would be another question: do the owners of the signage also own the entire (or most of the) building, and do they intend to own it for a long time? Signages of this sort are more or less permanent; once the owner of the sign leaves, the building who have to be redone, and it won't be cheap.
    Roseline Ruark @ CrownNeonSigns.com

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