This is the book about wayfind­ing, sig­nage and envi­ron­men­tal graphic design by David Gib­son. The book describes every­thing you need to know to get started as graphic designer in the world of envi­ron­men­tal graphic design. The writer David Gib­son is a highly respected wayfind­ing designer and prin­ci­pal of graphic design firm Two Twelve, New York.

A man­ual for stu­dents, teach­ers, pro­fes­sion­als, and clients.

This is exactly what this book is about, easy read­able and rec­og­niz­able for every­body to read and learn wayfind­ing design. I have read this book with great plea­sure and using it as a ref­er­ence man­ual in my daily activities.

Infor­ma­tion Design for Pub­lic Places

In the first chap­ter the book describes the his­tory of wayfind­ing and the spec­trum of projects, which you will learn about the dif­fer­ent areas wayfind­ing design­ers work in. There are sev­eral great exam­ples of wayfind­ing projects shown and Gib­son takes it deeper into the struc­ture of projects and where the wayfind­ing design­ers fits in. Every chap­ter fea­tures a page writ­ten by peo­ple from the indus­try, mak­ing this book great fun to read and you will get dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives on the topics.

Design Process

As wayfind­ing designer there are many dif­fer­ent kind of signs needed in a project, from small toi­let signs to large boxed let­ters on the roof of the build­ing. To enhance the wayfind­ing sys­tem all signs need to inter­act which each other in order to let them work together effec­tively. The book describes many dif­fer­ent type of signs and explains about strate­gic plan­ning and infor­ma­tion graphic design. With sev­eral exam­ples on how to doc­u­ment a wayfind­ing sys­tem this part really stands out in the book.

Wayfind­ing design

In the sec­tion wayfind­ing design, Gib­son talks about typog­ra­phy, lay­out, sym­bols, color, mate­ri­als and media. This sec­tion is a great learn­ing expe­ri­ence to cre­ate sig­nage & wayfind­ing design. With an very inter­est­ing page from Jonathan Hoe­fler on type design, leg­i­bil­ity, pur­pose and wayfind­ing design these chap­ters will make you want to cre­ate wayfind­ing design!

Prac­ti­cal tips

The last sec­tion of the book takes you into how wayfind­ing projects are ini­ti­ated and what the require­ments should be in order to select a wayfind­ing designer. I espe­cially enjoyed the part about doc­u­men­ta­tion and fab­ri­ca­tion, one of the most essen­tial parts of cre­at­ing a good man­ual for a wayfind­ing project.

Con­clu­sion

Per­son­ally I enjoyed read­ing this book very much, it is easy to read, rec­og­niz­able, short sto­ries but with an edge to keep it clean and sim­ple. Each chap­ter starts with a small intro­duc­tion and a line about Learn About, where you quickly see what to expect from this sec­tion in the book. As said above the dif­fer­ent insights from other peo­ple in the indus­try makes this book a great ref­er­ence guide into wayfind­ing design. What I love about this book that it is writ­ten for every­body. If you are into envi­ron­men­tal graphic design, signage/wayfinding than this is the book for you!

The Wayfind­ing Hand­book is a com­plete guide to the dis­ci­pline, from plan­ning and design to prac­ti­cal con­sid­er­a­tions, such as set­ting up teams and man­ag­ing projects.

Avail­abil­ity

• TwoTwelve started a min­isite about the book The Wayfind­ing Handbook
• Get the book The Wayfind­ing Book at Amazon
• Inter­est­ing inter­view with David Gib­son about wayfind­ing and the book at BusinessWeek.
• Spe­cial page at Face­book.
• Web­site of TwoTwelve.

Details of The Wayfind­ing Book
Price $24.95
ISBN 9781568987699
7 x 8.5 inches (17.8 x 21.6 cm), Paper­back, 152 pages
265 color illus­tra­tions; 5 b/w illus­tra­tions
In print (pub­li­ca­tion date 3/1/2009)
A Prince­ton Archi­tec­tural Press publication