(Signage)

Wayfinding for a public library

A signage system for a five-floor library that works in any language, using red, arrows and very few words.

Client
A municipal public library
Location
Trondheim, Norway
Year
2024
Services
Wayfinding, Pictograms, Signage
A red sign totem with a white arrow in a concrete library atrium

(Overview)

The brief

The library had just reopened in a new concrete building, and visitors were getting lost between five floors and two entrances. A lot of them did not read Norwegian.

The work

One colour, one arrow and a set of twelve pictograms carry most of the system. Words are kept for room names only. Every sign is the same red, so the eye can find the next one from across the atrium, and the totems sit where people stop to decide, not where the architect had space.

The result

Help desk questions about directions fell by a third in the first term. The pictogram set has since been adopted by two other libraries in the region.

A red wall sign with pictograms beside a concrete staircase
A woman in a camel coat walking past a red sign column

(Next project)

All work

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Editorial, 2023
An open magazine with a fjord photograph and a black shape