Downtown Harrisonburg: Wayfinding
Sign family and wayfinding system created to encourage pedestrians downtown to venture off of the typical path of Main Street.
Structure & Fabrication
The structure of the sign is representative of some of the art featured downtown—large wire sculptures. The form is also representative of the Blue Ridge Mountains that surround the valley.
Pedestrian Wall Graphics
Wall graphics show walking time and direction of common streets that many pedestrians don’t travel to because they aren’t as familiar with them.
Map Details
The maps downtown show where more businesses are located, to encourage people to explore other areas of downtown.
Challenges and process
Determined a problem to address by conducting research and gathering information from residents of Harrisonburg. Many pedestrians, especially students, are hesitant to venture to side streets of downtown Harrisonburg because they aren’t as familiar with the businesses that are located there. I also realized that people are much less aware of street names, and more aware of locations of well-known businesses. I addressed these problems by including more pedestrian directions and signage that shows walking time and clearly labels street names.