Manufacturing and installation
Forward Signs built most of the signs out of aluminum and acrylic, as per Entro’s specifications.
“We wanted to use the acrylic pieces to provide a dimensional ‘magnifying glass’ effect,” says Gratton. “This gives the sign graphics more punch, given their size.”
Tactile arrows and pictograms were also added to the indoor signs. Outdoors, the opposite approach was taken, with recessed pictograms representing various services and amenities specially illuminated.
In other cases, vinyl graphics were applied directly to walls, directories—for which the client had already developed the map graphics—and other select surfaces.
The food court sign had to be redesigned to allow for vents in the bulkhead.
The sign system was installed in two main phases. In the first, approximately one-and-a-half years ago, retail signage ‘bands’ were installed outdoors, with set parameters for retailer logos. The buildings’ addresses were displayed as pinmounted numbers illuminated by downlighting near each entrance. And wayfinding signs were integrated into the underground parking garage.
In the second phase, which wrapped up earlier this year, signs were installed in and around the hotel, the last portion of the development to be built. By this point, the mall was open and more than 80 per cent of its stores occupied by tenants.
Fulfilling a vision
As the various portions of World on Yonge opened, it began to fulfil its developers’ vision of a space for residents and visitors to live, work, shop and play.
“It will really cater to the local area, but the intent later on will be to market it beyond the community,” says Gratton. “It provides a lot of convenience in an area where residents have typically had to drive from one strip mall to another for the same range of products and services. There’s a lot of variety all in one place.”
This convenience, certainly, is part of an ongoing trend in real-estate development, which Forward Signs and Entro both hope to tap into in the future.
“There’s a huge market for mixed-use development signage,” says Gratton. “A lot of the time, the real estate developers try to do it all themselves, without realizing the importance of a more specialized approach to signage. There’s a science and a process behind it.”
With files from Entro. For more information, visit www.entro.com.
