Wayfinding: Graphic Design in the Built Environment

Catalog description

In November 2014, Volvo Race's boat Vestas did not find her way to Abu Dhabi port and got stranded on a reef in the Indian Ocean instead. What went wrong? Is it still possible to get lost today, in the age of ubiquitous and democratized GPS? What does it mean to find one's way? How do different environments create unique problems, as well as provide solutions? How do we find those solutions ourselves, and how can we intervene in the design of our working and living environments, in the design of our navigational practices, in order to avoid getting lost? What tools do we have? How do they work? What can we learn from navigation before GPS? Informed by new technologies, the demand for sustainability, and the inputs from cognitive studies, "wayfinding" has grown to become a field of research in its own right, related to both architecture and design. It studies the ways in which people orient themselves via the organization of sensory cues from the external environment. The course explores visual design components and theoretical ramifications and will include workshops on campus signage systems, with a focus on accessible design.