I was hired by Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation to design new wayfinding and interpretive signage for the Jamestown Settlement museum.
The previous signs were orange and suffered sun damage from years of display, making them difficult to read unless guests got close. My main challenge was in picking a new color for the signs that was both easy to read and still within the color scheme of the museum.
My client praised the new signage color, and soon I was designing more signs using the new palette.
Signs were placed in parking lots, aboard ships, on the boardwalk, in the outdoor exhibit areas, and in the main hall to direct and educate guests.
I also took on updating the designs of the outdoor interpretive signage. My main goals were to increase legibility and establish a consistent color scheme.
The most challenging part of creating these signs was their location. Most were on a boardwalk in a forested area that received a lot of sunlight. As a result of this, the previous signs grew moss and some cracked so severely they were no longer legible. To solve this, we used a material called bearboard for the new frames to replace the wood, and embedded fiberglass panel instead of the previous wrapped metal graphics. They’re now much easier to maintain and clean, and easier to read overall.