Environmental Graphic Design: Dynamic architecture and interior décor

by all | 31 May 2013 8:30 am

By Leslie Gallery-Dilworth
As designers, architects and artists become more familiar with digital media, a range of technologies are significantly influencing their work. Indeed, these technologies may soon become just another tool in their box or another material to choose from.

For this to happen, however, there is a need for these professionals to begin to work far more closely with manufacturers, installers and integrators who specialize in digital signage, dynamic lighting and related technologies. Similarly, it will behoove many professionals in the sign industry to become more knowledgeable about how to communicate with—and understand the priorities of—architects, designers and artists.

Understanding objectives
Collaboration and better communication are essential at all stages of a project, but in particular, dialogue needs to be invited at the earliest conceptual stages.

Today, one major obstacle is the difference in objectives between manufacturers, their sales representatives and integrators on one side and the world of designers on the other. For the former, there is an understandable interest in focusing on sales quantities, i.e. the number of products sold. Architects and designers, however, are not interested in quantity, but instead in finding one system for a specific situation.

[2]Further, designers rarely prioritize the use of the newest technology. They do not start the creative process for a given project thinking, “I would really like to use that product!” Instead, they want to know about a range of options, their technical qualities and their costs before determining which will be optimal for expressing a design as a physical reality.

Big potential
As digital media technologies have evolved from signs, billboards and video screens, these components are being incorporated into the design palette for built spaces. With costs coming down, more technology is being incorporated into environmental graphic design (EGD), branding, wayfinding and ‘architectural storytelling.’

As mentioned, however, architects and designers can only use digital media more creatively if there is closer collaboration between the fields. Even today, most architects have only a limited understanding of the sign industry’s range. In their view, rectangular digital signs are all too common, cluttering the environment inside and outside a building, creating a sort of visual cacophony in public spaces.

Meanwhile, most signmakers and product manufacturers think reaching out to an audience of architects and interior designers is not worth their time, money or effort. The more designers understand the potential use of their products, however, the more frequently these products will be specified.

[3]With digital signage proliferating in restaurants, stores, museums, hospitals, transportation facilities and just about everywhere else, many of these installations are increasing in size. Some signs are the size of the buildings—and could even be considered buildings unto themselves, albeit generating more revenue through advertising than through renting spaces.

As buildings’ façades and interior walls are turned into gigantic screens with the installation of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs) or other components, it becomes all the more important to nurture and maximize communication between manufacturers, researchers and designers, to see how they might work together to shape public spaces.

One step in this direction might be to stop referring to the entire breadth of new technologies and materials as ‘digital signage.’ Instead, the term ‘digital media’ sets the stage for the innovative creation, implementation and ongoing use of this technology to transform architecture and interior design.

Another path to improved communication between manufacturers, designers and architects is to better acknowledge each other’s roles. When a finished project is showcased, for example, everyone involved should be identified, such as consultants, fabricators and design firms.

Finally, rather than see the relationship as one of the manufacturer selling a product to the designer, collaboration should be fostered, so it becomes a process of working together to solve problems and generate new opportunities for the future.

Leslie Gallery-Dilworth is an architect and was CEO of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) for 12 years. She helps manufacturers and fabricators market to architects and designers. For more information, contact her via e-mail at lesliegd@me.com[4].

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/dynamic-architecture-and-interior-decor/

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