Wayfinding signs are crucial in our day to day life. We’re so used to directional signage that we rarely think about them as we’re following their directions. The signage that is truly unappreciated is parking garage signage. From helping you find the entrance to the parking structure to showing you how to get out via stairs or an elevator, parking signage is responsible for navigating you through your entire parking garage experience.
Atlas Capital Group was in need of completely new signage for a parking garage so they contacted us to handle the project. We made and installed numerous
warning signs, “No Parking” signs, elevator directional signs, and bang bars. The warning signs and “No Parking” signs were installed into walls and pillars all throughout the parking garage. The warning signs we made were cautionary signs so people wouldn’t damage their car while parking. “WARNING” is in red to make sure that people take time to read the signs. You always want to use a typeface that is easy to read in these situations. In this case, we went with Avenir Medium, a sans serif font that can be read easily and quickly.
The “No Parking” signs were made in the same way as the warning signs, just with a different message. When parking garages get full, people tend to try to park wherever there is space. This is not only illegal but can block others from getting in or out. In order to avoid this issue ahead of time, Atlas wanted to post “No Parking” signs along walls and spaces where cars should not be stopped.
Bang bars refer to the hanging signs above the entrance to the parking garage that shows how much clearance you have in case your vehicle is taller than the average car. These may be irrelevant to some, but they are crucial for bigger cars.
Lastly, signage was put up to help people find the proper elevators to get to the correct lobby. Depending on the type of parking garage, some will have one way up, multiple that lead to different indoor rooms, or multiple exits to go outside which are labeled by which street it’ll take you to. We put up some hanging signs to direct people to the elevators and wall signs were also necessary. We were initially going to put up vinyl lettering, but the lettering ended up being hand painted.