The signage (r)evolution
Travelers can learn a lot from the new crop of airport signs
A version of this story first appeared on The Points Guy.
When the new $1.7 billion terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport opened on Tuesday, travelers were greeted by more than just a soaring space inspired by the region’s natural topography.
The space marked the full debut of the airport’s new wayfinding and signage system. Out was the static 1990s signage and in was a “bold and impactful,” in the words of Kristal Ernst, an environmental graphic designer at Gensler who worked on the project, signage program made for Steel City.
New black-and-yellow pylons — yes, they do draw inspiration from Pittsburgh’s sports teams — stand at the entries to the terminal under the soaring wood-toned ceiling directing travelers to their respective airline counter or security to catch their flight. Flight information displays, or “FIDS,” share that color scheme and take a more graphical approach to conveying information to travelers.
The intent, Siri Betts-Sonstegard who oversees experience and design at the Pittsburgh airport told me, was to make the signage and information on those signs “very highly visible.”
Visible they are.
Pittsburgh is one of many airports refreshing its signage for the digital age. Out are solely static signs that, while they do their job moving travelers from point A to B, have little to no dynamism. Destination, airline, flight, gate, departure time, status. That is about it.
In is a new mix of static and digital displays that do everything the old signs did and more, drawing from the data-rich world in which we live to improve the passenger experience.
Boarding time. Codeshare flight numbers. Destination weather. Crowding. You name it, a modern airport sign can display it.
“We are living in a world with all these data sources and people are trying to use them to have a better passenger experience,” said Rob Daly, a principal at experiential design and signage firm Entro in Toronto, who has worked on airport signage projects around the world including at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
One could call it a silent signage evolution — or maybe revolution? — fueled by the same tech that has utterly changed our lives over the past two decades.
