The DWRC Building Wayfinding Signage
The DWRC building in Washington D.C. is home to two Smithsonian museums: The National Portrait Gallery and The Smithsonian American Art Museum. We created a modern wayfinding system that would integrate seamlessly into the building's historical architecture and clearly orient visitors to the two separate museums.
The Directive
We were asked to create a signage system that would help orient both first time tourists and repeat patrons looking to explore the Donald W. Reynolds building, which houses both the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
My Role
Art Director, content strategist, and designer. In collaboration with our architectural team, I developed a series of signage types and digital systems to employ through the entire museum. To convey the system and strategy I created a series of conceptual visuals to illustrate how the signage would scale through the building both visually and content-wise.
The Challenges
These two distinct institutions are located on multiple floors in one building. To complicate matters their locations are not standard, but rather switchback throughout the building. Both museums offer a variety of programming and events through the building that visitors can rarely find without assistance.
The Solutions
We created a system of traditional and digital media signage to provide the museums with flexibility to present timely content everyday. Being mindful of the historical architecture, the signage forms wrapped columns and fit seamlessly into alcoves. We also introduced a new uniform floorplan map that visually highlighted the two museum spaces through subtle color shifts.