Signscape blog

Just a quick note to let you all know that we have a new person at Signscape – Becci North joined us on 10th May and will be working in the sales office. Bright and bubbly – Becci has a background in customer service, including being the land lady of a well known local hostelry.

Next time you’re on the phone why don’t you say hi!

Post & Panel with one leg

I love this single legged Post & Panel – it just looks so fresh!

It’s great to be creative with our systems, it’s something I get a tremendous buzz out of – coming up with different ways to get your customers message across.  If you have a set of wayfinding to do for a college, hospital, industrial park or retail let us see if we can help you.

We make the metalwork, paint it to any colour you wish and you make the sign look awesome with fantastic graphics

Lectern for wayfinding

I was recently discussing the merits of way finding with another sign-maker. The thrust of my argument was that well positioned signs can not only enhance an area, but help generate business to cash strapped areas. This is particularly relevant in our own area of North Somerset – where huge national supermarkets have opened up, potentially cutting the life blood of from towns/villages.

The town’s business’s have struck back by putting up signs encouraging shoppers to go and use the village and local shops. I’m all for supporting our local shops, but appreciate the big supermarkets make it very easy with free parking and well laid out stores. Villages can prove difficult to park in (often with over zealous parking attendants).

My friend argued that signs should be as big as possible, with the largest text in caps filling the space – a different view point from mine. I believe that the signs can be designed to have empathy with the local surroundings/architecture/heritage and still guide either tourists or shoppers to a given destination. This makes it easy for the visitor to find what they are looking for, but also gives the Local Authorities the opportunity to guide them into other areas of local interest.

The photograph shows a lectern with a map panel and a finger-post system, both systems clearly guiding the visitor to local attractions and key points.

Solar Powered signs for children

This is me teaching Year 2 pupils @ Yatton Infant School. My daughter goes there and my wife was talking to one of the teachers, who asked if we could come in and talk about solar power as the children were learning about the planet and the harm fossil fuels were doing.

It was a great experience – very different from teaching teenagers. My daughter had helped me make a battery from an old shoe box, with a little 6V battery and light. The children rubbed their hands and put them into the “molecules” to light the bulb – all very excited when it lit up.

One of the children asked why don’t we use solar more?, especially if it saves the planet from being dug up! How incisive children can be..

Signscape leads the way for Zero Power

Staff and students at Gordano School recently joined together in a united gesture to see if they could cope without the use of electricity for one day. Their Zero Power Day was structured around using as little electricity as possible, other than that which they generated themselves. The aims of the day were to highlight the impact that modern technologies have on the day to day running of a modern school and to see how much energy and money they could save by being more thoughtful about the power they use.

Various guests from local businesses and industry were invited in to demonstrate how their approaches and products were helping to create a more sustainable environment. Hamish Paterson and Jeremy Reeves were asked by the head of Design and Technology at Gordano if they would spend the day there, demonstrating how their Ecovision system of illuminated signs works. Hamish and Jeremy explained to students from Yr8 right up to A level how the PV cells generate the power for the signs and how the Infra Red detectors provide a more automated approach. Students learnt how the electricity is stored and then released only when it is needed.

The visit provided an interesting, alternative approach for students who got to see how what they study in the classroom is used in a real commercial context. Plans are being developed for another similar exercise in 2010 when Gordano hope to strengthen the links they have made with Signscape and other local companies.

Paul Wison

This was an article written by Paul Wilson of Gordano College (North Somerset) after Jeremy and I spent a day with students looking at alternative energy supplies. We had a great day – with some great ideas and questions coming from the students.