Mike Oustamanolakis, PhD

Two campuses, one month

Visitors, inspectors and officials kept getting lost. Architects and interior designers had tried signage before; none of it had stuck.

1 month

time to complete the project

It was scheduled for two: from the first floor to every required floor on both campuses.

BeforeAfter
Places known by codes only insiders could read
Places named after cities, safety exits after classical poets
Visitors, inspectors and officials getting lost
Found their way unaided
Signage schemes by architects that had not stuck
Both languages on every sign, with arrows to the two nearest exits
Two months agreed for delivery
Delivered in one

Two campuses, five to six buildings each. 2018–2020.

Four posters from the series, re-created. Each names a place after a city and points to the two nearest exits, named after poets. These sit alongside the mandated green exit signs; they do not replace them.
Three screens from the phone app, re-created with sample data. Sites withheld.

Who

Client
NDA · Electronics manufacturer
Region
Mainland China, 2018–2020
Scale
Two campuses of five to six buildings each
My role
Design Lead and Managing Director. Led the design and its delivery through my consultancy.

What

Staff moved between buildings by bicycle, scooter and golf cart. Workers, engineers, visitors, health inspectors and government officials all needed to find a place, a machine or a safe way out, and the numbering made sense only to the people who already knew it.

How

Before: places identified by codes such as Building 4, Floor 2, Area 17, and Exit 3-B. After: places named after cities, such as Nanjing, and safety exits named after classical poets, such as Du Fu. How a place was identified BEFORE Building 4 · Floor 2 Area 17 · Exit 3-B → AFTER 南京 Nanjing Exit: ← 杜甫 Du Fu Codes have to be learned. Names are already known.
Redrawn from the original designs. The factories and their locations are withheld.
  1. Named places instead of numbering them. Areas took the names of cities, safety exits the names of classical poets: names people already carry in their heads. The named exits sit alongside the mandated green exit signs; they do not replace them.
  2. Put both languages on every sign, with arrows to the two nearest exits.
  3. Put every machine’s manuals, checklists and supervisors one tap away, in a simple bilingual web app, with directions between buildings.
  4. Proved it small, then scaled it. One floor in the first week, one building live in the second, a one-week pilot, then every required floor on both campuses.

Impact

See the directory working (prototype, sample data) →