The Ocean Club Signage System

The graphic design consultancy The Kitchen, were faced with the dilemma of creating a signage system for people who could not see. It was commissioned to create this for Ocean, which is one of the largest music venues in London with a capacity of over 3000 and three auditoriums over four levels. I found this example of a signage system in “Mapping An Illustrated Guide to Graphic Navigational Systems” by Roger-Fawcett and William Owen. The Kitchen attempted to devise a system that was as restrained as possible, working all the signs into a square format produced in enamelled metal panels.

As you can see from the images, white backgrounds were applied to all of the signs bringing the element of consistency and also making the text stand out. This also made the signage easier to read and more legible. To create a design that was going to be suitable for a blind person, braille text was added to the bottom of each panel. I think that the placement of this is quite important and will have required a lot of thought and testing, particularly for blind people to be able to read it. By placing the embossed braille at the bottom of the panel, I think this would have made it more accessible as opposed to having to feel around the board. This will have been more convenient and saved time.