The 2021 SEGD Wayfinding + Placemaking Symposium promises to bring a global perspective to experiential graphic design. In this collection of videos, presenters from India to Australia and from Hong Kong to the UK reflect on design through a dynamic cultural lens. They feature a variety of projects including airports, corporate headquarters and public spaces. Presentations and Q&A sessions provoked conversations about cultural sensitivities and nuances, while exploring processes and design solutions that help build meaningful connections and thoughtful representation.
Graphic Life: Celebrating Places, Telling Stories, Making Symbols
Michael Gericke (Pentagram) presented the keynote address which focused on his newly published book Michael Gericke: Graphic Life. This 520-page publication celebrates Michael’s life as a graphic designer and his 35+ career at Pentagram. You can learn more about Graphic Life in this SEGD article.
Beyond the Binary: Setting the Wayfinding Standard for Inclusive Restrooms
To those accustomed to standard public restrooms (divided by “Men” and “Women”), the idea of an all-inclusive restroom (accommodating people of all sexes and genders) might make many uncomfortable! But Carla Ramirez Sosa and Anna de Jonge (Mijksenaar USA) present their firm’s recent designs for all-gender restrooms inside Amsterdam’s Schipol International Airport based on comprehensive audience research. You can learn more about “Beyond the Binary” in this SEGD article.
Tropicalization of Design - Global Corporations and Localizing Design Strategies
Too often, corporations resort to "typical" postcard images when depicting a local culture in their designs. Fabiano Vincenziand Daniela Teràn(BOSQUE) speak about searching beyond stereotypes and incorporating respectful and culturally accurate representation into local design strategies.
Predictive Places
For the past 10 years, designers have had to figure out how to code neighborhoods for people - reflecting accelerated changes for the way they actually live, the way they want to use space, and the way places are actually supposed to function. Phil Kim(JERDE) discusses Predictive Places and the process of trying to get much closer to human centered design and, even in large scale projects, try to reflect those kinds of changes.
Mexico City Then and Now
SEGD Fellow Lance Wyman (Lance Wyman Ltd.) delivers his keynote talk about the evolution of his work in Mexico City, beginning a half-century ago at the 1968 Olympics (still considered Gold-medal-worthy) and continuing today, collaborating with the Mexico City Government for their Integrated Mobility project.
Local is Global - Multilingual Branding
Sarang Kulkarni (White Crow) of Mumbai, provides a fascinating overview of the firm’s work across India, creating multilingual branding for the world’s most well known companies along with custom fonts and calligraphy that represent many of India’s lesser known languages and dialects.
Representing Cultures Through Design
Spaceagency (London) has created an extraordinary breadth of work designed across many sectors around the globe. The firm’s Sarah Manning and Peter Feldman discuss and share EGD projects and how they ensure that their design teams understand, respect, and represent local cultures appropriately through their work.
