How are we guided through the world we live in? How do we find our way through museum exhibits, public buildings, hotel lobbies, or even our own homes? Like moths to a flame, we maneuver through the world by chasing light.
Today, we’re acting as that flame, leading you through the process of wayfinding and how design elements, like light, can help us navigate spaces by reducing the need for signage, guiding traffic in the correct direction, and more!
Finding Your Way to Wayfinding
Wayfinding is one of the “invisible” parts of design – a strategy that most people might not even be aware of but makes all the difference in creating a functional and safe space. In lighting design, wayfinding is all about balancing light and shadow to coerce the eye to move to the place you want, whether it’s the sign for the emergency exit, path to the restroom, next display at an exhibit, or even up the stairs.
When looking at a project, our team always considers the most common questions that wayfinding can resolve: where do I go next and how do I get there? If guests are getting lost or are unsure of where to go, lighting techniques – like accentuating the use of color in the space, brightening signage, illuminating pathways, and more – can illuminate the way and eliminate any distractions (shadows), potential confusion or even danger in some instances.
Illuminating This Practice
Think about an airport; if all the lighting is the same level of brightness, you would have a much harder time finding the check-in counter or your way to the gate in a crowd of people. By adding bright light to the counter areas, or perhaps using colorful, lighted signs behind them, travelers are inherently drawn towards these prominent areas.
Another great example is a hotel corridor: We’ve all stepped out of a hotel room and looked up and down the hallway, forgetting which way the elevator is. A surefire way to tell is through lighting cues; the elevator lobby will be more brightly lit than the corridor, like a beacon shining into the hallway and telling us where to go.
One key example of our use of wayfinding techniques was at the Chicago Central Post Office. While working within a perfect grid of downlights that purely lit the space, we deliberately made the output of the lights over the counter a little brighter than the rest to indicate that this central point was the most important part of the space.
And our work with the Shedd Aquarium is all about using wayfinding to guide people through the exhibits. When we lit the Polar Play Zone, we wanted to draw the eye away from the floor and onto the glowing aquarium elements, keeping visitors enthralled by the aquatic life at play.
Wayfinding is about beautifully balancing light and shadow to highlight important areas, helping guests enjoy their time in a space — and explore without ever feeling lost. As long as hotel guests, restaurant go-ers, travelers, and museum visitors feel safe, engaged, excited, and in control, we’re confident they will continue coming back to the flame for more, time and time again!