Environmental designs for the future

Real Estate Weekly, July 15, 1998 by Merrilie Camhe

Really beautiful.

Starting with the logo art that appears on marquees and banners, which is then carried through to interior signage and collateral materials - including letterhead through brochures - environmental graphic designers are responsible for articulating a property's identity. By melding a corporate image with the building's physical attributes, environmental graphics achieve a basic synergy between the signage, the architecture, and even the surrounding neighborhood.

For example, an address sign at the from of an office tower, such as 1251 Avenue of the Americas or 270 Madison Avenue, visually defines the building's corporate identity at entry point, and in addition projects its status in the marketplace.

When designing for hotels, the graphics reinforce a message of hospitality in conjunction with marketplace positioning. The Michelangelo, for example, is the first American venture for the Starhotels Group, an Italian chain with 17 four- and five-star hotels throughout Italy. For their New York hotel, the ownership wanted to clearly project an Italian identity that amalgamated Old World charm and modern design.

To accomplish this, we embarked upon a series of designs comprising richly textured materials and Renaissance-patterned lettering. The sophisticated Italian theme was introduced in the exterior signage, which included a canopy at the front entrance and the hotel's logo imprinted in the surrounding sidewalk. The image was then carried inside through interior signage, and such collateral and print pieces as brochures, guest room directories, letterhead, registration cards, billing statements, and guest room amenities.

With Trump International Hotel & Tower, for which Epigraph Studios designed an award-winning guest attache folder, along with all of the collateral pieces and in-room signs, we followed the hotel management's directives to reinforce a residential feel with a classic, yet current look. Moreover, the designs had to complement two distinct room styles - traditional and contemporary and still maintain their edginess.

Best characterized by Susan Ricci, president of S. Ricci & Company, Inc., a leading hotel consultant, environmental graphics may be defined as "having a goal to capture the essence and personality of the building through design."

As an environmental graphic designer, one of my missions is to give potentially obstructive and graphically invasive elements a sense of nuance and artistry. Think of how inherently incongruous a rectangular plexiglas safety sign is in the context of a double height marble and brass corridor. To make it appear appropriate on the wall of that corridor, the sign should complement the interior design and still be legible.

In addition, the signage has to be so good as to not stop traffic, but simply inform quickly. Sometimes this is achieved through universal symbols - particularly expedient with directions to restaurants and rest rooms - and other times we use the language mandated by code regulations. But the signage is always designed for clarity and immediate comprehension - e.g., you want to know where the fire exits are without having to decipher the text.

We analyze textures, fabrics, colors, and materials in order to develop signs and collateral that communicate without interrupting the natural movement of the public in office towers and hotels. My firm has even designed signage for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters, and you can well imagine the traffic control issues in those venues.

The ultimate goal of an environmental graphic designer is to amalgamate the corporate identity with the physical environment. So whether it's a marquee with 20-foot brass and steel numbers using a custom font, or a high-tech interactive video directory in an Art Deco lobby, or a hotel tariff card on finely textured stock with a gold embossed logo, the design is going to present an immediate visual impression about the property.

Our work often combines the visions of property owners, managers, architects, interior designers, and marketing firms. It relies upon a confluence of elements, including building structure and architecture, location, interior design, and market positioning to visually communicate messages that easily segue into the future.

(Merrilie Camhe is president and founder of Epigraph Studios, Inc. Since 1990, Epigraph has created corporate identity programs, building operation and collateral materials, code and safety signage, and environmental graphics programs for an illustrious client roster that includes 1251 Avenue of the Americas, Time Warner at 75 Rockefeller Plaza and 1271 Avenue of the Americas, the Millennium Hotel, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1997, Epigraph Studios won the prestigious Graphics Arts Award, presented by the Association of Graphics Communications for its design of the Trump International Hotel Attache Folder.)