Interventions in relation to Frutiger

In relation to my interventions I’ve adapted Adrians Frutiger’s belief that arrows and triangles implies direction in a more abstract way through the use of tape in straight lines to create a pathway for people to follow. I decided to create a more abstract wayfinding system that didn't evolve  pictograms or symbols as I wanted to create something a bit different but universally understandable. However I could adapt my intervention to actually include arrows and include pictograms to represent the male and female pathways more clearly instead of solely using different coloured tape. 

In order to further my knowledge I gathered images of way finding systems around Leeds. The majority of these systems as very basic and follow many of Frutiger’s ideas sue to the use of arrows and pictograms within the system. The use of pictograms allows the systems to be universally understood such as an image of a man and woman and an arrow (see figure 1 to 3) to indicate towards toilets. These images of contained within squares which according to Frutiger creates impression of a bounded place which implies safety and security allowing the public to trust the symbols allowing fro a successful sign system. The sign systems I’ve found are successful in the sense that they are clear, simple and authoritative so are easily trusted however they are not very innovative and are similar to most other sign systems.

In relation to my intervention in order to improve its successes we could take it out into a more public setting and see how successfully the pathway works at leading people towards a new destination. In regard to the use of tape to create an obstacle in the doorway we could experiment with using the tape in an entrance way in a less authoritative way so it was clear that you could still enter but you till had to navigate the tape as we found certain people believed the toilets where out of order due to the placement of the tape across the door. 

Figure 1

Figure 2 

Figure 3