EXPLORING GUIDANCE AND SIGNING SYSTEMS IN ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHIC DESIGN AS INFORMATIONAL DESIGN: A STUDY USING GRAPHIC DESIGN EXAMPLES
Authors:   ", Çetin Bigat Ekrem ,   Faculty of Architecture and Design, Digital Game Design, Istanbul Gedik University, Istanbul, Turkey"
Published: October 2024

Knowledge means power. Having knowledge has empowered human beings and provided new opportunities throughout history. Nowadays, with technological developments, accessing information has become easy for everyone. "Information Design” has emerged as an interdisciplinary field facilitating efficient access to necessary information and transforming complex data into comprehensible formats for broad audiences. Its primary objective is to ensure accessibility and understanding of intricate information. Currently, information design actively guides and simplifies information transfer through visual elements such as guidance and marking systems, symbols, graphics, pictograms, maps, panels, and typography. Environmental graphic design encompasses the planning, design, and presentation of graphic elements within communication systems deployed in both natural and constructed environments. This discipline encompasses guidance systems, markings, display designs, corporate identity graphics, urban design, pictogram design, store design, mapping, and thematic landscaping. Environmental graphic design has increasingly integrated into everyday life through the implementation of guidance and marking systems. Guidance designs enhance efficiency, create positive impressions, and foster a sense of safety in unfamiliar environments. Meanwhile, marking designs serve as visual indicators directing individuals towards their destinations. Presently, elements such as information, guidance, and signage facilitate communication between urban environments and inhabitants. Beyond their primary roles in guiding, informing, and delineating within cities, these elements play a crucial role in enhancing urban identity, improving legibility and coherence within the cityscape, and fostering a harmonious relationship between people and their urban surroundings. This study focuses on typography, a fundamental aspect of information design. Through an analysis of information, guidance, and marking systems, it becomes evident that elements such as signs, directional cues, symbols, pictograms, and traffic signs, integral to environmental graphic design, are closely interconnected with typography. This study conducted a thorough review of sources to ensure the provision of original and comprehensive content. The research primarily utilized printed visual sources, augmented by archival research, internet and library databases, books, magazines, articles, and theses. Findings were presented through detailed explanations, quotations, comparisons, and identification of common themes. This article comprises five stages. The first stage introduces the study, encompassing definitions of communication and graphic design, and an exploration of the concept of perception. The second stage defines the relationship between urban spaces and information design, discussing contemporary urban dynamics, urban identity, the intersection of urban spaces with graphic design, visual elements in urban environments, and the role of environmental graphic design. In the third stage, the study explores the role of typography in information design within urban contexts, defining information design principles, application areas, components such as typography, pictograms, symbols, emblems, and signs, and discussing criteria for readability and perceptibility in typographic analysis within information design. The fourth stage focuses on a typographic evaluation of routing systems through illustrative examples. Case studies of exemplary institutional guidance systems are examined, and recommendations for enhancing these systems are presented using tables and graphs. Finally, the study concludes with a summary of findings, evaluations, and proposed solutions