Penn South is a large-scale residential complex located on ten square blocks in Manhattan's Chelsea district. Originally constructed in the 1950s, the complex underwent major building and landscape renovations in 2002. While improvements were made to infrastructure, sidewalks, landscaping, and lighting, the owners recognized the need for a new wayfinding program to help residents and visitors navigate this urban campus. Responding to the client's request, Poulin + Morris designed a comprehensive sign program unifying all of the various structures and outdoor common spaces.
This exterior signage system is one of the largest and most technically sophisticated signs in the world. Covering more than 7,000 square feet and spanning 22 stories, the sign is an integrated system of thirteen LED panels that not only grabs the attention of passersby, but also effectively communicates what Reuters does and why it's important. The sign symbolizes how Reuters gathers, processes, and displays information to the public. Raw data flows down the sign and into the building as processed information flows out of the building and up the sign.
Standard street signs are small and difficult to read at a distance for pedestrians, bus riders, and car drivers – particularly after dark. To solve this problem, 34th Street Partnership designed, developed, and installed 200 self-illuminated street signs. The unique lighting system was based on LED technology; the background color for the sign ensures that the diodes within the frame of the sign light up the white font areas and not the background.
The client was interested in creating a unified visitor experience that included a comprehensive signage and interpretive system for the Tyler Arboretum, a 700-acre outdoor living museum located just west of Philadelphia. The design team conducted planning workshops from which several major themes emerged, including botany, history, and conservation. The resulting comprehensive signage and interpretive system includes 40 interpretive panels of different sizes. The panels are layered with headlines, messages, photos, and playful illustrations.
Sushi Taira is a restaurant that serves authentic Japanese food within an atmosphere ranging from casual to high class, as well as from western style tables to private tatami rooms in a more traditional Japanese seating format. In order to attract a wide range of different people, the mark had to be elegant enough to attract a high-class clientele, yet modern enough to better familiarize people with sushi. Research shows that not many sushi restaurants have their own logo. Even if they do, the logo tends toward a generic fish.
The intent of this exhibition was to convey the process by which contemporary architect Frank Gehry designs a building, in particular the Peter B. Lewis Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. To make the gallery feel like a working space, worktables like those used in a model-making studio were constructed out of plywood, two-by-fours, and carriage bolts. The basic steps of the Gehry process were simplified into five sections, communicated through didactic text panels made of aluminum but fashioned to look like stainless steel.
The Robin Hood Foundation initiated an effort to remodel or create libraries in ten neglected New York City public elementary schools with money raised from corporate donors. The graphic designers named the project The L!BRARY Initiative and designed a simple, flexible identity based on the word-mark. This was extended into signage and other environmental graphics at each of the libraries, each of which is tailored to its school and student body.
