Signage lesson for New Hall college

Wayfinding Consultants has completed the final phase of its signage work for Cambridge University college New Hall.

The work will enter a ‘settling in’ period at the beginning of September, prior to the return of students and lecturers in early October. The consultancy has created destination points, dual-function directional signs and it has also renumbered each room.

According to Wayfinding design manager Nick Hawksworth, the previous alphabetical system had become confusing and he had to start from scratch. ‘[The renumbering] is a subtle, but important, design tweak,’ he says.

Wayfinding designed a series of signs incorporating a revised layout, colourways and typefaces and created a single point of reference for visitors to the college in the reception area.

The redesign of the campus’s entire signage and orientation system, which was worth a five-figure sum, was prompted by the demands of corporate clients, which use the college in semester breaks.

Students and lecturers could learn from experience how to find their way around, says Hawksworth, but conference delegates often got lost.

‘The layout of the site has changed completely over the past 50 years,’ he adds. ‘It means the grounds had become very difficult to navigate.’

He says the consultancy had to retain the integrity of the building with the signage.

Wayfinding was appointed without a pitch on the strength of previous work at the site.