Signage and wayfinding are often some of the most important touchpoints in any civic or spatial project. Landmark signs, directories, feature signs, way-finding and general environmental – these systems are so ubiquitous that they’re often overlooked while people focus on the best logos and the splashy rebrands. When done correctly, they can be eye-catching, functional and meaningful too.
Colour, materiality, scale, and form can enhance an environment while also helping people navigate it. Even clever restroom sign, a naturally patinated directory, a wayfinding element that feels native to its environment – becoming a small moment that reshapes how people experience that space.
That’s also why, when overall civic design fails, you tend to feel it in wayfinding first. Signage that’s functional, but feels generic, interchangeable from one place to the next. It does the bare minimum: which way to turn, where a stadium is, how to find the exit. It’s the same type of approach you might see in outdoor walking malls, places that are supposed to act as centres for community but often use design as a way to just 'check a box'.
Mall-ification
We’ve started to call this phenomenon 'mall-ification'. It’s civic branding and design that’s not risky. It’s not contextual. It’s barely even specific. And you feel that immediately when you’re in these spaces. Everything works, technically. And it can be efficient. But if your designs in Ohio look like your designs in Texas, which look like your designs in Los Angeles, then you’re not designing in any way that will create permanent connection. It’ll be ready to tear down as soon as the wind changes.
Contextual design
Thankfully, some cities are charting a new way forward. Nicolas Vrignaud's signage designs for Docks en Seine in Paris help transform a 1907 concrete warehouse into something cohesive and intentional, turning the industrial to an inviting and humanist experience. Bruce Mau's Toronto Carpet Factory work brings a hand-hewn and utilitarian nature to their designs that really fit the history of the site. And in our own home in Denver, projects like Denver Design District’s new identity system (above) act as a navigational tool and a statement, marking the district as a distinct and creative environment.
These examples of civic design succeed because they are contextual, reflect the community, feel inclusive, and are designed with care. They allow people to feel oriented; not just physically, but culturally. And they nurture a sense of pride and ownership that should be at the heart of all civic design. Because it isn’t just about informing people where they are or directing people somewhere. It’s about giving them a reason to care about where they are.
Designing connection
This isn’t about a need for more creativity for creativity’s sake, but about using design as a mirror to its community, giving people something to connect to at a time where connection and investment in community are in decline.
It's a significant challenge. Civic-scale projects have broad audiences, meaning you’re designing for a wider range of demographics, psychographics, and lived experiences than almost any consumer brand. The work needs to be widely legible and welcoming, but it also needs enough point of view to feel progressive, culturally relevant, and thought provoking. It’s no wonder that many cities decide to take an easier route, using mass-produced, shelf-stable design that’s optimised for efficiency, not for memorability.
Through type, material, light, and interaction, design should tell a different layer of the story of a community; something that reinforces what makes a place distinct. Take the city of Port Phillip in Australia, where Arterial designed wayfinding (above) that mirrors the vibrant creative industries throughout St Kilda Arts Precinct. With its bright colours, bold forms, and unexpected scale, the system stands out clearly against the built environment, doing its primary job exceptionally well while still feeling distinctive. It feels both rooted and new, functional but full of personality.
When design and branding are treated as an afterthought in civic projects, everyone loses. Not only is the perceived quality of the entire project eroded, but a sense of community as well. So, as communities look to brand or design their public spaces, it’s important to honour more than functional goals, bringing a more human-centred approach in a few key ways.
Investigate and engage: Historical audits, material and typology catalogues, stakeholder interviews, and public conversations need to take place before creative decisions are made. After all, how can you best represent a community unless you get to know that community? So, take the time to build a rapport with the community. Involve them in the authorship and develop a sociological document of your insights to act as the foundation of the visual system. It will give the work durability and a resource that can be a lodestar for future consultants, future phases, and future decisions.
Stay flexible: Civic spaces, organisations, and districts are mutable. They evolve, grow, and change. So, it’s important to design for “what’s next,” not for the “now.” Just think – a city’s brand from ten years ago probably didn’t include an ADA-conscious digital palette. It simply wasn’t part of the conversation. Similarly, people used public space radically differently during and after Covid, and the brands that endured were the ones built with flexibility. We don’t know how society, technology, or public space usage will change, but we do know that it will. The brands that stay resonant over decades, supporting the communities and the people within them, always share one trait: they are designed to evolve.
Go custom: When you’re representing the spirit of a place, proprietary assets matter. Civic projects can’t rely on a logo alone, they need a broader visual language that is ownable and deeply tied to their environment. Everything from photography to bespoke typography should contribute to that sense of place. For LA’s West Harbor (top of page), a multi-building waterfront development with diverse uses and countless touchpoints, cohesion needed to extend far beyond the logo.
We developed a custom typeface that became a creative hallmark across signage, digital interfaces, marketing and environmental graphics. The forms drew from the hand-painted industrial vernacular of the port, allowing even everyday functional moments to feel rooted in the site itself. At a civic scale, those repeated interactions are where the brand truly lives.
Most of all, make sure to find balance. Designs need to be effective but you also can’t fall victim to the same thinking that hollowed out malls – places where everything looks the same, feels the same, and sells the same thing. Healthy communities crave texture, context, and character. Design and branding can be a bridge to get them there.
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