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Sukanya Bhattacharjee
23/02/2024
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What is the first thing you notice, whether you’re exploring a city’s heritage, crossing a road, spotting a coffee shop, looking for a hospital, or visiting an exhibition centre? Visual design elements, right? Did you ever understand how these little symbols or icons immediately capture your attention and convey you information to navigate ahead? Through a unique combination of typography, symbols, colours and imagery, effective visual communication as a powerful medium shapes how we perceive, feel and interact with the spaces around us.
Visuals evoke emotions and create a narrative that makes spaces comfortable and safe. In this article, let’s understand the critical role of visual communication design in shaping spaces and experiences.
Visual communication is the art of storytelling used to convey a message or information to users, enabling them to take action and interact with spaces. It has the ability to strike an emotional cord more effectively than just words, creating experiences that surpass language barriers. From public toilets and traffic signage to emergency exits and entertainment hubs, visual communication has emerged as an essential tool of communication.
According to the Journal of Environmental Psychology, people are six times more likely to remember information when presented in the form of visuals. In an era marked by declining attention spans, visual communication design has grown, proving crucial in breaking through the information clutter and conveying messages with efficacy. Visual design elements wield a rapid and profound impact on emotions, enabling the creation of memorable experiences within spaces. The use of clear signage and intuitive symbols significantly improves navigation and information retention in architectural spaces.
Visual communication design influences how you visualise, feel, and respond to environments. On the other hand, experiential architecture is a human-centric design approach that prioritises positive experiences and centres on user well-being above factors like aesthetics and affordability. The principles of visual communication design can positively impact user perception and spatial interactions and involve various elements. However, it is best to keep in mind the communication design basics that can improve engagement and efficiently deliver information.
A visual hierarchy within a space gives users a sense of direction toward focal points. Through the strategic use of colour, symbols, forms and signage, designers can guide individuals to key areas, conveying the intended narrative and purpose of the space. Consistency in communication design contributes to a unified visual design language that ensures a harmonious and immersive experience.
Incorporating brand elements into architectural spaces through effective visual communication design reinforces the identity and image of a brand. Consistent branding and visual design thinking help establish a connection between the physical environment and the brand, influencing how users associate with the space. Interactive elements like digital displays, touchscreens, multimedia installations or smart elements provide opportunities for dynamic spatial interactions, making spaces more adaptive and responsive to user needs.
Simple, easy-to-understand wayfinding systems help users navigate within complex architectural spaces. Implementing visual cues helps them understand the layout, making them feel more comfortable and safe.
The influence of culture in visual communication design is impactful and far-reaching. Design that respects and incorporates cultural nuances establishes a sense of inclusivity, contributing to a more positive and accommodating environment. Combining intuitive icons and culturally neutral symbols ensures that individuals feel accepted.
Signage, symbols, and text that are easily readable for individuals with visual impairments make spaces accessible. Alternate formats or technologies like braille or digital displays cater to diverse needs.
Wayfinding solutions are a set of visual cues and signage that help people navigate through physical spaces like buildings, streets, or campuses. These signage include informational signs like instructions and warnings that stop you from potential hazards, directional signs that help find the way to a particular location, and regulatory signs like traffic lights and stop signs that regulate the safety of people. Wayfinding signage is essential for architectural environments because it improves safety, customer experience and boosts engagement.
Signage is the most critical element of visual communication that influences how a space is perceived. The quality and effectiveness of these signs can shape the user experience. Signage can also encourage customers, inspire employees, ensure safety, make policies, showcase exclusive discounts, implement company values, guide users and promote inclusivity and diversity. It is also an affordable means of communication that can effectively raise awareness, impart information, attract individuals and drive sales.
Applying communication design principles to create compelling signage involves clarity, simplicity and visual hierarchy. Legible fonts, high-contrast colours, intuitive symbols and consistent design language improve the functionality and visual appeal, ensuring signage effectively communicates information.
Simple and easily understandable wayfinding signage gives clear instructions and guides users to quickly move around a space without any confusion or restlessness, ensuring a comfortable experience. This becomes even more important for large-scale spaces like malls, offices, hospitals, or colleges and can drastically increase user satisfaction.
These easy-to-grasp signs can significantly increase safety within buildings by providing appropriate directions for users towards elevators, emergency exits, staircases, washrooms, and other important areas of concern. It assures safety in emergencies, especially in densely populated areas like malls, office buildings, hotels, and hospitals.
Accessibility is a major concern regarding the design of public spaces. A proper wayfinding system can take care of users with disabilities, making it convenient to find ramps or lifts. In most cases, signs are usually in the form of larger prints, bright-coloured, and even have a braille system for visually impaired users.
A wWayfinding system is a cost-effective method to handhold users through intuitive design symbols, elements, and designs that significantly impact the efficiency of physical spaces. It can also boost revenue by encouraging users to visit more often and drive business or retail store sales. Buildings like hospitals, colleges, and community centres also largely benefit from these signs.
Wayfinding signs are highly beneficial for branding. They can be designed with a well-planned idea that conveys the company’s vision or message and reaches the target audience through symbols and logos with quirky fonts. This helps create a visual identity for the brand and makes users more likely to respond and connect to the brand.
Universally accepted symbols and consistent design language that is easy to understand across different cultures help make spaces adaptable. Through cultural symbols, colours, and shapes, users resonate with particular spaces. These symbols act as powerful tools of communication and ensure that users do not feel alienated or threatened in any way. Understanding cultural awareness and empathising with users helps craft effective visual communication with depth and diversity. The goal is to introduce a sense of inclusivity and ease of movement within spaces, regardless of linguistic or cultural context.
1. Cultural Sensitivity: - Be mindful of choosing symbols with cultural differences. Certain symbols may have different connotations for various cultures, so it is crucial to select symbols that are universally understood and culturally neutral instead of relying upon a specific language.
2. Colour Coding: - Colours can influence how people feel within spaces, so implement a consistent colour coding system for various functions and areas that help users recognise and navigate specific regions.
3. Consistent Design Language: - Maintain a cohesive design language using the same fonts, colours, and design elements that help users understand the hierarchy of information and promote a comfortable experience.
4. Multilingual Signage: - Include multilingual signage whenever applicable to cater to individuals with different language proficiencies. Ensure that translations are clear, accurate, and culturally sensitive.
5. Inclusive Graphic Design: - Consider graphic design principles like high contrast for improved readability and legibility. Ensure visual elements are accessible for individuals with visual impairments or colour blindness.
6. Interactive Displays: - Incorporate interactive displays whenever applicable with touchscreens that allow users to select their preferred language. This especially helps individuals who aren’t proficient in the dominant language of the environment.
7. Balancing Functionality and Design in Signage: Achieving the right balance between functionality and design involves integrating clear communication while considering aesthetics. Pay attention to simple and intuitive symbols to direct users effectively and simultaneously incorporate materials, colours and universal design elements that align with the aesthetic of the space. This balance ensures that signage not only fulfils its practical role but also contributes positively to the visual cohesiveness within the space.
Here are two architectural case studies that demonstrate how through effective visual communication, design firms can implement wayfinding for a smooth, accessible user experience.
The Bihar Museum was designed to attract visitors from across the world through its collection of exhibits and artefacts that were intuitive and culturally resonant. Lopez Designs implemented a transparent wayfinding system, incorporating universal symbols alongside culturally relevant icons. Colour-coded signage helped visitors with directions, and interactive displays provided information in multiple languages, improving accessibility for diverse users.
The Kartavya Path in the Central Vista redevelopment project needed a comprehensive wayfinding system to guide people through the public places in the heart of Delhi. Gurugram-based award winning multidisciplinary firm Lopez Designs implemented clear signage and landmarks to demarcate different zones using universal symbols and bilingual signage, while digital kiosks provided real-time information and interactive maps for visitors. This ensured visitors from various linguistic backgrounds could navigate and engage with the space.
Godrej Meridien, an elite residential project, required a balanced approach to provide clear wayfinding signs to residents and visitors within a complex of multiple towers and amenities that align with the project’s visual identity. Straightforward typography, high-contrast colours and universally understood symbols were strategically placed for optimal functionality and navigation. The choice of materials and finishes further contributed to the high-end ambience of the surroundings.
DLF Cyber City, a prominent business district in Gurugram, needed an effective strategy for guiding users across the corporate offices and retail spaces within the complex. The design team at DLF Ltd developed a signage system that incorporated clear typography, easily recognisable symbols and a colour palette inspired by the vibrant Indian culture. Locally sourced materials, which were durable and visually pleasing at the same time, were used. The signage design was integrated with the diverse architectural styles present within the campus. This approach improved user experience and also reflected the modern and cosmopolitan image of the corporate hub.
Google "Deep City" NYC Headquarters Experience on Vimeo Video Courtesy: Hush (Vimeo)
Branding creates a distinct identity for built environments. It integrates a brand’s visual and storytelling elements into the architectural design to evoke emotions, communicate values and improve user engagement. By shaping the sensory and emotional experience of individuals within the space, branding in experiential architecture contributes to a more wholesome environment that resonates with the target audience and conveys the brand’s ethos. Branding elements like logos, colours and design motifs are integrated into the physical environment, improving recognition and creating a premium user experience.
By carefully designing physical spaces and focusing on a consistent visual language, brands can establish positive responses and loyalty from the users. Well-designed environments are recognised by attention to detail and can be perceived as high-end or innovative spaces. This distinction helps command exclusive rates and attract discerning customers.
Understanding and taking reference from pre-existing visual communication design examples in physical spaces is a strategic way to strengthen and solidify brand identity. It not only boosts brand recognition but also creates a memorable and impactful experience for users. One such brand integration in architectural design is the Ayushman Bharat, designed by Lopez Designs.
The people-centric branding of 1,50,000 health and wellness centres was designed to make health more accessible and inclusive. It allowed health centres to customise their facade treatment using local patterns and materials to give local people a sense of ownership.
Designers face several potential challenges when implementing communication design in architecture. Here are some of the most important ones and how they can be resolved.
Challenge: Balancing the visual design elements with the existing or intended architectural aesthetics can be challenging but needs attention. If the elements don’t sit well with the physical spaces it defeats the purpose of integrating communication design in the first place.
Solution: Designers should focus on human-centric designs through extensive research and user testing. Understanding the target audience helps in creating communication design elements that resonate effectively.
Challenge: There is a risk of overwhelming users with too much information. A cluttered visual environment can be a major turn-off for users, so designers must carefully curate and prioritise their decisions.
Solution: Designers should establish clear and minimalistic design guidelines that align communication design with the architectural vision of the space. The guidelines provide a framework for consistent design language.
Challenge: Implementing and maintaining technology-driven communication elements, such as interactive displays or digital signage, may pose challenges due to technical complexities and evolving standards.
Solution: Designers must develop communication design elements that can adapt to evolving technologies. Scalable solutions that can be easily updated or replaced without significant disruption can be a great option.
Challenge: Another challenge is ensuring that users actively engage with and respond positively to visual design elements.
Solution: Designers need to implement elements that capture attention and encourage interaction.
Challenge: Visual elements like symbols, colours, and signage need to be universally understood and should not unintentionally convey something inappropriate that targets any culture or religion, for that matter.
Solution : Designers can conduct cultural research to understand more about visual elements that resonate universally before implementing them. Being respectful and sensitive towards cultural nuances removes the confusion.
Challenge: Meeting accessibility standards to cater to individuals with diverse abilities can be challenging.
Solution: Designers need to consider factors like readability, colour contrast, and tactile elements to ensure accessibility is maintained throughout.
Visual communication and its impact on society is extensive and ever-evolving, and so is its influence on allied fields like architecture and interior design in day-to-day life. Visual design is a creative approach that simplifies complex information through effective illustrations that help users perceive and understand the purpose of spaces better. It ensures that the physical, cognitive and emotional needs of spaces and experiences are met.
With the ongoing digital advancements, emerging technologies and design trends are on the rise and will surely influence the field, increasing the demand for premium user experience within architectural environments. AI-powered tools like virtual reality and augmented reality are technologies that help shape the future of architecture and suggest that visual communication design has the potential to improve how we feel and interact with built environments.
Know More About Visual Communication
- If you enjoyed reading this one, then you might also like to dive into 7 best examples of visual communication. - Want to become a graphic designer? Get a better perspective on career opportunities in visual communication. You might also find help reading about scope of communication design. - Need expert opinions? Watch this comprehensive webinar on the career opportunities in communication design.
An independent architect and writer based in Bombay, Sukanya started as a practicing architect but soon discovered the vast potential for multifaceted roles within the AEC industry. This led her to explore a series of possibilities – from design ... ing and curating to researching and writing. Witnessing her designs come to life, critical thinking, and writing gave her a perspective both as a designer and a writer. With two years of independent work, she’s had the privilege of collaborating with publication houses, architectural studios, firms, organizations, and educational institutions. She advocates for mental health and is often found doing spoken word poetry.
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