Signage design

Avaava’s guidance and wayfinding method, developed over many years, takes into account people with various functional and mobility disabilities, including visually impaired and blind people. Signage design is one of the cornerstones of Avaava’s operations. We have over 15 years of experience in this field and over 50 projects.

Our special area of ​​expertise is the design and implementation of signagesystems serving visually impaired and blind people.

Signage design

Avaava’s guidance and wayfinding method, developed over many years, takes into account people with various functional and mobility disabilities, including visually impaired and blind people. Signage design is one of the cornerstones of Avaava’s operations. We have over 15 years of experience in this field and over 50 projects.

Our special area of ​​expertise is the design and implementation of signagesystems serving visually impaired and blind people.

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Clear, uninterrupted and understandable signage is a significant part of the physical and communicative accessibility. With signage, built environments and virtual spaces become truly equal. A space with signs can be better understood and everyone can function smoothly in any way they want.

Kohosign® products

Kohosign® signage system includes:

  • tactile area map
  • word map
  • guiding direction signs
  • room and door signs
  • elevator guides / storey guides
  • symbol signboards and signs
  • pictograms
  • Braille signs
  • sound guides
  • embossed floor markings

Kohosign® signage system provides a clear, barrier-free and uninterrupted guided route for everyone moving around the building. The different sign types in the product family complement each other, making it easier to navigate the premises.
High-quality design combines functionality, quality and aesthetics. The series has been developed in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of experts and has been tested by accessibility, architecture, healthcare and design professionals, as well as people with various mobility and functional disabilities.

Signage design

Kohosign® family includes, in addition to basic signs, tactile signs and word maps. The signage design services offered by Avaava include the design of signage logic, preparation of signage needs specifications, and design of the visual appearance of signs. If necessary, we also take care of sign production, as well as of production monitoring and installation. Signage design is always based on a unified, coherent and accessible signage system that takes into account the diversity of users, complies with the ambient architecture and environment, can be integrated into ICT systems, is easy to maintain and update, and is cost-effective.

Avaava has provided signage design and implementation services for various office buildings, commercial premises, hospitals, doctor’s offices, teaching facilities, libraries, training centres, and churches. Among the most demanding and extensive of our projects are several comprehensive signage designs for different central hospitals.

Avaava’s special area of expertise is signage design for all senses; as a model example, consider the signage system for blind customers at the Central Library Oodi, which is unparalleled even on the international level.

Sound guides

Sound guides are an excellent but rarely used type of guidance. They are particularly useful for blind people and people with impaired vision, but also make navigating easy for everyone else.

The Avaava word map is a type of sound guide, providing advance information about the site, already on your home computer. The Avaava word map is a route guide to a destination that can be read or listened to on the website, as well as a clear description of the building itself and its various facilities.

Signage references

Avaava has carried out more than 50 signage design projects, from single tactile maps to design and implementation of entire hospital campus areas.

Lithuania’s Lost Shtetl -museum

 

Lost Shtetl -museum's tactile map

Oulu Town Hall

 

Oulu Town Hall's wall sign

Tuusula Swimming Pool

Tuusula swimming pool's changing room signs and symbols

Oulu University Hospital

Oulu University Hospital's waiting room with its signage

Oulu Central Library Saari

 

Library Saari's tactile map

Helsinki Central Library Oodi

Oodi's tactile map

New Kainuu Hospital

A wall map and a few more signs in New Kainuu Hospital

Kalasatama Health and Well-being Centre

Kalasatama Health and Wellbeing Centre's tactile map

Pori Central Hospital

A colorful hallway in Pori Central Hospital with its signage

Aalto University, Maarintie 8

A map of Aalto's Maarintie 8 building

Seinäjoki Central Hospital

A hanging sign in Seinäjoki Hospital lit from inside

Mikkeli Well-being Centre

A wall map of Mikkeli Wellbeing Centre

Kallio Family Centre

Kallio Family Centre's tactile map

Hvittorp Conference and Course Center

A road sign for Villa Hvittorp and its sauna

Onerva Centre for Learning & Consulting

A sign for the boy's changing room with Braille

Eskoo Support and competence center

Wooden symbol signs on the wall

Sodexo Pitäjänmäki

An elevator floor guide for Sodexo

Metropolia Myllypuro campus

Metropolia's tactile map

Intelligent signage

In addition to the traditional fixed and static signage, various digital and dynamic signage methods have been developed in recent years. In its projects, Avaava makes sure that these two signage domains differing by implementation are combined into a single, complete signage system.

As part of the nationwide 6Aika project, Avaava has compiled the Smart City Signage Handbook, which is an overview of a comprehensive signage model in which traditional signage and digital solutions complement each other. The handbook is aimed at municipalities interested in developing signage, companies providing signage solutions, and private and public service providers. The handbook supports the municipalities in signage design and implementation.