Signs of Tradition

I've spent roughly 2/3 of my life living in the same area of New York: Sullivan County. There's a lot of little, nothing-to-do towns, and we always seem to be ranked high in various state-wide rankings for things that one isn't exactly proud to be ranked high in. But it's home. Outside of the site of the Woodstock festival and the performing arts center built on/near the site several years ago that draws some pretty big names in the music industry (http://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/) there doesn't seem like there is much to do. But if you're willing to work at it just a bit, there is actually a lot to do in the area. Much of it dealing with nature as we sit at the foot of the Catskill mountains.

Visiting one place in particular, called Beaverkill (in geographic terms, a 'kill' simply means "stream, creek, or tributary") has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. We visit a minimum of once a year (often many more times) to swim, picnic, and occasionally camp out. As far as parks go, it's not overly big, or even that interesting if you don't enjoy the 3 aforementioned activities. Since this particular blog assignment coincided with a planned trip there, I thought maybe I'd be able to kill two birds with one stone. Then I got to thinking that it might not be the best area to critique for information design purposes, as I couldn't recall all that many signs. But, I brought my camera and an open mind anyway, and I was actually pretty surprised at what I found.

Here we see the main sign as you pull into the main parking area. The brown background, yellow lettering, and blue seal of the DEC are all standard elements of "official" park signage. You see a sign with those elements, you know right away that you're in a more 'official' area than if you just happened to be wandering through the woods. The fact that the park system uses these kinds of signs brings a cohesion throughout the system, which ranges literally over the entire state. That kind of unity is quite useful when your target audience is spread far and wide.

And some of the rules of the area. Important information, again done in those 'official' colors to draw attention to the importance of them. We see the use of the recycling symbol, to reinforce the idea of cleaning up after yourselves. Some people need all the reminders that they can get.

The official "historic point of interest" sign, which could do with a bit of a face lift. Slightly informative in a 'huh, how bout that?' kind of way, which works for these types of signs. Seems a little odd to place a 'No Trucks' road sign right next to it as it does ruin most of the historic interest vibe with a more modern intrusion, but, that sign is still important as the bridge the sign references REALLY cannot handle trucks (you'll see in the next picture), and these two signs are on the side of the road leading right across the bridge, so the no trucks sign placement seems to be born out of necessity. Putting it further back on the driveway would be misleading as there are ways you could turn prior to these signs that don't go over the bridge and trucks are allowed in those areas. If it was my design though, aesthetically speaking, I would probably go with a sign that said "No trucks allowed on bridge" further back, rather than this symbolic one in this area.

Here's exactly why trucks aren't allowed on the bridge. Low clearance, low (vehicularly speaking) weight limit. This has always been one of my favorite aspects of the park, because that bridge has been standing for a long time, with not all that much done to it in the way of maintenance. And it's still sturdy as can be.... as long as people follow the signs. I like the sign choice here, as the white with black lettering is eye catching, but not detracting from the sight of the bridge itself. And whoever thought of the archway before the bridge is a smart person. It acts as a kind of sign all by itself since if you can't get under the arch, you won't clear the bridge. A great safety feature since the arch can be repaired much easier than the bridge can. You learn a lot about what's up ahead just by it being there, an excellent design feature.

This sign is on a tree right next to the road leading up to the bridge, and I have to tell you, I REALLY could have used this sign about 3 years ago when I moved back to this area. Anyone not familiar with the sight, there are these purple things hanging in trees all over the place. They're like triangular cylinders and they just hang there. I started seeing them and asked around as to what they were, and no one seemed to know. It was some time before I finally found out, and a sign like this would have helped solve the mystery much sooner. Yellow background made it stand out against the tree, and drew my eye right away, important for a warning/caution type sign. DEC and USDA logos add that official air to it. I imagine this is photocopied from information meant for widespread use, but even still I had to chuckle at the addition of the QR code given the fact that you lose all cell phone service about 3 miles before you hit the park. This is an example of information being designed for as wide an audience as possible, not tailored down for specific sectors.

Compare this historical point of interest sign to the first one, and you can guess that this sign is relatively new. I'm not sure when exactly it was posted because it was in an area that I haven't frequented in a while, so when I found it on this trip, it was new to me. This is an appropriate sign because the region where this park is, is extremely well-known in fishing circles (particularly fly-fishing). I had no idea who Theodore Gordon was, or that this was one of his favorite spots, but I do now, and I felt just a bit of a deeper connection to the spot because of it. An effective commemoration.

Here's some homemade signage etched into the foundation of one end of the bridge. Like many spots like this, there are a large number of these kinds of commemorations all over the bridge. It could be viewed as graffiti, but I have to say, all the 'signatures' I've come across here have been very respectful and tame in nature, as opposed to garish and profane. It's an interesting contrast to see the differences and similarities between how a site is marked "officially" and unofficially. The unofficial signage in this park has fairly organic feel to it, which adds to the experience, rather than detracting from it.

The last picture, of two road signs on the other side of the bridge from the pictures earlier. I find these signs to be of poor design for a couple reasons. One, while there is a back way into the park, it is definitely not commonly known or well traveled. You end up going through the entire camp site portion of the park long before you come to the bridge, and no matter what you're doing in the park, it's just not an efficient way to go. Therefore, I'd say 99% of the traffic at the park comes through the main entrance. And if you're going back out that way after having passed the point of these signs, it means you've already come across the bridge and are aware of its existence. Having a sign there doesn't seem particularly necessary. Then there's the wording of the 3 Ton Bridge sign. Yes, we're all supposed to know that they mean the weight limit is 3 tons, but I've often laughed at signs like this because they could also be taken as informative, as if they're telling us how much the bridge itself weighs. You never see "One Ton Elevator" signs, you see "Maximum Capacity: 2000lbs" signs. To me, it's a safety sign that lacks clarity, which is never good design. About all that these signs have going for them is their bright yellow color. Eye catching and we know that we're being told to proceed with caution... if you couldn't figure that out by looking at the end of the bridge that's 10 feet behind these signs (and also has the same white clearance & weight signs as the opposite ends).

That about did it for signage in this area of the park. A lot more than I thought there was, and most of it suiting a pretty clear purpose, and doing so effectively. This is definitely a way finding type of approach as most signs endeavor to educate or lead you to places. One big issue I took with their design aesthetics, I didn't think to get a picture of. The bathrooms/changing house. Virtually unmarked. There are no "Restrooms this way" signs anywhere in the park or parking lots. And there is no large sign on the building itself. And it really doesn't help that the building design matches the design of one of the office buildings on the other side of the park which is heavily labeled with "Employees Only" signs. At first glance, you'd think it could be just another of those buildings. The typical male/female bathroom symbols are only on the doors (entrances on each side of the building) so you have to be right up close to it to see, and if you guess the wrong side first, you've got a long walk around the building to get to the right door. Seriously poor design there.

All in all though, this experience taught me that even in places where signs and information design don't SEEM prevalent, there are a lot more examples out there than you might think. All you have to do is open your eyes and your mind.

I leave you with a couple of the more scenic shots I took during the day:

The start of the next generation of the tradition...

Noticing Theme - Or: My 8th Grade English Teacher Would Be So Proud

When you're writing a book/story, theme is one of the many elements you have to consider. Theme, when done well, is multi-layered, and quite nuanced. Boiled down to its essence though, theme can be compared to 'the moral of the story'. It's the undercurrent that runs throughout a work and ties all the interwoven strands together into one unified piece.

Design wise, it serves much the same purpose. Think of the themes you use on your computer or smart phone. Changing the "theme" of your devices usually means changing the color scheme, using similarly styled icons (which match or contrast the color scheme), and changing the default fonts of your various programs to something that "fits" as well. The theme of the design becomes the overall "look" of the design, which is very important since its usually the first impression the audience receives.

Fortunately for the average blog user, they have a lot of help when it comes to designing/implementing an effective theme. To illustrate my point this week, I went ahead and changed my theme.  Same basic three box layout, but different colors, different background design, and different font. It took all of 10 seconds to achieve this.

I went into settings, found the layouts tab, and selected a new, pre-made layout/theme, then clicked save. And just like that I have a new look for my blog.

Of course, one has to consider the effectiveness of the change. Are orange, pink, and yellow swirls the image I want for my blog? Do they line up with my goals or my target audience? Since the goal was simply to illustrate how easy it is to change a blog theme, I'd say yes. The multi-colored, somewhat whimsical design wouldn't exactly be appropriate in a professional setting however. If I was looking for that kind of theme, I'd simply search the library of themes provided by Blogspot and pick one that suited.

Then, usually, these free themes allow customization to arrange text and colors and photos to where you want them, without any programming knowledge required. Wordpress has an impressive range of free themes that fit a wide range of blog genres and audiences. An even larger library if you want to pay a subscription fee.

Search for "Free blog templates" and then get ready to spend hours upon hours combing through the results to pick out ones your like - IMG SRC: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3458/3276330998_f90af59e71.jpg?v=0

The sheer number of themes out there, along with the amount of time one might spend to adjust their free theme "jussssst right" is proof of just how important the packaging/presentation of information actually is. Both those things are also evidence of just how easy it is to lose sight of the fact that how information looks is, at most, only half the battle. After all, readers aren't going to stick around for the moral of the story if everything else isn't up to par. Just like people aren't going to care about how pretty your blog looks if you don't have interesting content.