Connecting two halves of the same city

Lessons from Cardiff

Our brief in Cardiff is to ease navigation between the city's two distinct nodes “ the city centre and the bay “ which lie nearly two miles apart. It's not so unusual as you might think: we are often having to grapple with a place that has a traditional core and a newer, more peripheral destination too, like a university campus or leisure area, or even towns where the main transport interchange is quite a distance from the town centre. Places like Derby, Stratford on Avon and Haverfordwest are cases in point.

The challenge is how do you connect the two areas?

But, it's the perfect challenge for us, and we've certainly been flexing our graphic and wayfinding muscles on this one.

Beyond the spatial separation, all new signage must also be dual language with, importantly, Welsh being the dominant language. So when it comes to our sign design, we've been asking:

How much information is the right amount? How much is too much?

Mapping

Mapping almost always features on our external wayfinding signage. But with a dispersed town or city, it can actually be quite a conundrum to display the right level of detail to be helpful without overwhelming the user.

In Cardiff, the mapping is particularly key, to help visitors build a mental map of this unusual city. So, we've carried out stakeholder engagement to ensure we understand how locals understand, map out the city in their minds and navigate the city.

We've helped to avoid information overload while still getting our message across by:

• Distinguishing pedestrian and cyclist routes visually with different colours and line weights
• Graphically establishing a route hierarchy to connect arrival points and key destinations so some routes and destination stand out more than others
• Visually highlighting various districts, destinations and character areas to aid visitor understanding
• Identifying primary, secondary and tertiary destinations through colour and contrast
• Incorporating landmark elevations help build a picture in a visitor's head as a memorable orientation point
• Incorporating walking circles for 5 and 15 minutes, to demonstrate the walkability of the city

Graphics elements and typography

Beyond the map, there are plenty of ways to communicate clearly to a disorientated visitor. In Cardiff, we've done this by:

• Considering how to use different typographical weights (eg light, regular and bold) to support legibility and comprehension ‹
• Giving extra attention to the design of bilingual texts, ensuring we retain prominence of the Welsh wording using colour and font weights
• Implementing eye catching and simple iconography for clear communication that crosses language and other communication barriers
• ‹Adding walking times in directional text to address perceived barriers

Rarely in the United Kingdom or in Ireland will you encounter a regimented or organised town. The opposite “ a place that grew organically with surprising twists and turns along the way “ is much more the norm.

That is, of course, one of the main reasons why wayfinding interventions are so crucial.

Whether it's Cardiff or elsewhere, we love to use our wayfinding and graphic nous to help choreograph people in place and help them to experiences a place in the way you want them to. All with the ultimate ambition of helping them stay a little longer and walk a little further.