Signage and wayfinding redesigned

The results of the project to redesign visitors’ first experience of Manchester Art Gallery, which was christened 'Wander. Wonder. Welcome' have fantastically improved visitor responses says the gallery’s Head of Public Services, Kate Farmery.

Visitor numbers for 2006-7 rose by 33.9 per cent compared to the year before and the gallery increased its market share by 30.3 per cent, becoming the leading venue in the area for the first time. Just as importantly for Farmery, complaints about signage and people getting lost dropped by 70 per cent. “We were delighted about that because people don’t really notice successful signage and wayfinding schemes when they are helpful. It’s only when they’re not working that they notice them,” she explains.

The gallery also saw spontaneous visits rise by 180 per cent, which Farmery attributes to the new external signage and building dressing doing its job. It had also wanted to increase the range of people coming in beyond the typical middle class visitor and after the redesign, visitors from working class backgrounds, a group traditionally hard to entice, increased by more than 77 per cent.

The number of corporate members also increased. The introduction of audio visual equipment to the central atrium has proved a ‘massive asset’ when it comes to hiring out the space says Farmery.

Alexandra Wood from the design agency commissioned to do the work, Holmes Wood, says that she was delighted with the physical results. Better lighting in front entrance has made it more welcoming and the central atrium has been made the hub of the gallery she says. Carefully selected paint jobs have connected associated spaces in an unobtrusive way that helps guide people in and around the building. The team agreed that internal wayfinding systems needed to be permanent and not content specific, so they wouldn’t have to be updated as exhibitions changed, and this has meant the gallery has been able to ensure its brand stays strong on signs visitors see and use every time they visit.

The strong attendance figures attest to the success of the project and the visitor feedback has been resoundingly positive. One visitor comment summed up the impact that the transformation has had: “The gallery was beautiful: well organised and intriguing. A very good experience from every aspect. Cheers.”

Holmes Wood wanted to make sure the gallery kept its new brand exact so it ran design and writing workshops to train gallery staff in how to use a set of templates to design its own literature, signs and corporate material in the future, even if it couldn’t afford to call in a design agency for every small project.

‘Our client doesn’t use us any more, which in a way is back-handed complement,’ says Wood who, after doing the signage and wayfinding work on a tight budget, provided the gallery with a series of templates and image and copy banks to allow its internal team to create its own marketing and promotional material in the future. The gallery’s tri-annual guide to what’s happening in the gallery is now designed and written completely in house whereas before it was outsourced at a cost to the gallery.

Wood says the project ran pretty smoothly, her only regret being a minor sartorial point. “I think that we should have pushed for the front of house staff to have bolder t-shirts - the grey seems a bit safe.”