CityCloo

Thoughts and findings from the CityCloo team, on the topics of wayfinding, city branding and other public realm matters.

[thegeographicalimagination]

#wayfinding in #Bath #England #map

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Another all time favourite of ours. We're cheating as this is a wayfinding projects for a building not for an outdoor one, but it is so good that we had to create a dedicated post nevertheless. It's a couple of years old, but extremely clever and beautiful. Enjoy.

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Friday fun... A map of Milan's clubs and bars organised by type. The authors (click the pic - in Italian) call the map a Milan's nightlife semiotic framework: the four quadrants are "radical-chic", "chav", "alternative", "posh/snobbish". Cheers!

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A simple system to help wheelchair users finding their way and improving accessibility to services. It is a wiki-map and it relies heavily on the users' contributions. To get an idea compare your town and Munich, you'll see the difference. This service is REALLY good in Germany but at the moment it struggles a bit elsewhere, even here in London. Spread the word, the more visibility it gets the more likely to see the maps populated!!!!

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And here's probably the most sophisticated and really amazing job done by Living Map. It  gives real time information on shops, cafe', bar, restaurant etc. It a powerful live city-guide and wayfinding tool. It does require a lot of work, no wonder it focuses on a selfconfined district of central London (Soho). Would it be possible for an entire city? or rather, who is going to pay for it? municipalities? advertising co?

Available on the web and as an app (iPhone and iPad).

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and the shiny shiny version courtesy of the tourist board?

with video...

The project is very promising. It is quite ambitious and it will have to rely on people sharing their experiences but it has all the good ingredients, including a sexy graphic interface. It features both places and routes (only one at the mo). More interestingly it brings together wayfinding, culture/tourism and shopping/leisure and it is inevitably a key city branding tool for the city.

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Tagging the city - QR codes- City of Brussels

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tagging monuments in Sicily with QR (article in Italian)

http://www.repubblica.it/speciali/repubblica-delle-idee/edizione2012/2012/08/22/news/viaggi_a_portata_di_app_ecco_lo_smart_turismo-41320413/

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Holland...of course!

http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/

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Wayfinding with landmarks only: no street names in Managua!

READ the article here [in Spanish / photo from Google maps] 

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Some (small) signs for the cyclists and walkers in Bavaria.

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Smart solution in Regensburg to combine wayfinding and traffic signs...

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Different examples of wayfinding panels in medium-small towns around Bavaria (Bogen, Deggendorf, Haag and Mittelfers - the old fashion)

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In a recent holiday in Bavaria I stumbled across a number of wayfinding systems - not always perfect but they often do the job). The most structured was in Straubing (http://www.straubing.de/de/startseite/), a city of only 45.000. Even if it's Bavaria it proves that these schemes are worth even in medium-small towns. The Straubing's system is complemented by some temporary stickers for the inevitable beer fest and public art that highlight key public spaces and civic uses.

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Great concept but a number of practicalities to be solved (amount of colours, hub locations, etc). Still, impressive idea. Well done to Jun Kwon.

Check this link

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You've seen these everywhere if you were here for the Olympics... After a month they are still in place and relatively clean and legible despite the (relatively abundant) rain. In this case they performed a pure advertisement/branding role, but I wonder if the same system has been used for wayfinding elsewhere... BTW: I'm waiting to see how easily they can be removed.