Page Title

client

South Street Seaport Museum

project

District-Wide Wayfinding and Interpretive Signage

environmental design

Lance Wyman

graphics

Melanie Roberts

The challenge was to develop a coherent outdoor signage system for a small, scatter-site museum located in a busy, mixed-use historic district where a strong retailing presence had overwhelmed the museum’s identity. As project manager, I hired environmental designer Lance Wyman from a field of several candidates. We developed new branding — colors, typefaces, and signage types — inspired by the museum’s waterfront location and collection of ships. To heighten the institution’s visibility, I requested that Lance develop a new logo that privileged the word “museum,” and that utilized historic wooden type from the museum’s print shop. I wrote an interpretive script (prototyped but not implemented) that linked the museum’s ships to the landside buildings and exhibits, as well as copy for informational “buoy boards,” which were strategically deployed throughout the district.