Holmes Wood shows the way for British Library

Holmes Wood is creating new wayfinding for the British Library in London.

Lucy Holmes, creative director of Holmes Wood, says the consultancy was appointed directly last December. She says Holmes Wood had previously worked with the British Library’s head of marketing Penny Hamilton when she was at the Natural History Museum and, prior to that, at the Tate.

Holmes says the first thing the consultancy did was to create a wayfinding masterplan. This is being followed by a printed map of the library, which will be given to visitors, and wayfinding monoliths at key points in the library to deal with vertical circulation.

Holmes says, ‘It can be quite difficult to tell, for example, if you’re on the ground floor or the upper-ground floor, but they’re very different.’

The map is set to be produced in the next few weeks, with the wayfinding to be installed prior to the opening of the Henry VIII: Man and Monarch exhibition on 23 April.

Phase two of the plan, which the British Library’s service improvement manager Sara Mihalovic says will roll out in 2010, budget allowing, will see this strategy applied throughout the British Library.

Mihalovic says, ‘The aim of the work is to improve navigation and to give a cohesive feeling for the initial customer experience.’