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Saint-Georges polyvalente’s multi-sport complex signage
By : Bélanger Branding Design Ltée
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 17th edition
Discipline : Product
Categories : Industrial Design / Product - Signage : Bronze Certification
Finding your way shouldn’t be a sport. Even if you happen to use signage while running to catch your plane, or climbing stairs whose steps reveal a message as you ascend them, the sport is in the act, not in the message.
But in the case of the signage project for the multi-sport complex at the Saint-Georges polyvalente, the question arose: what role can the visual wayfinding system play in infusing the spirit of physical activity into the place it indicates?
For this mandate, Bélanger considered the usual issues of efficiency, universality and integration, among others. And to emphasize the minimalist beauty of human movement, the firm drew inspiration from it to create a signage design that responded to it in a contemporary way.
Embracing the shapes of the premisces, bending along its edges, the elements evoke the articulation of the body and of the circulation of users. Pierced to show the surface, or the void behind them, the indications play on the reader’s displacement to change, to reveal themselves. Vertical forms honor the human posture; sideways words invite you to tilt your head a little, almost warming the neck up. Alternating between dark and light, depending on location and support, the objects respond to the space, remaining visible, polarized, minimalist. The shape of the arrows themselves is less mechanical, indicative than usual: a folded pan, without a stem, suggests an arm, a leg, a finger pointing the direction.
The written words are clear, as if echoing the oral invectives of sports instructors. The soft, cheerful pictograms invite play, leisure. The light shining through the elements invites us to surpass ourselves, to disregard self-inflicted limits. Clear, visible instruction signs and evacuation plans serve as textual anchors to say the things that need to be said, without disturbing the visual aesthetics of the space.
The signage system now in place at the Saint-Georges multi-sport complex helps to create a pleasant, healthy and inspiring place that celebrates the beauty of the human body and its myriad sporting capabilities.
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