Commercial Signages

Study of commercial signages on commercial streets and how they affect user perception and cognition of the built environment is the 4th year dissertation project as part of my Bachelors in Architecture from 2017.

The architectural character of a street is an effort of each unit (building) of the street to stay in with the one next to it and very vitally still project the statement it was designed for. With commercial signs today being observed to be having a dominating role in creating spatial and visual quality of a space, user experience gained in streets has changed, the study investigates their role in spatial quality of a place. A comparative study of signage, their physical characteristics and concentration in the street, and surveys carried out to understand how signage play a vital role in user perception and cognition of the built environment.

Research Questions:

1. When does signage in built environment start to damage the visual quality of that place?

2. What can be the design considerations that can help in enhancing visual quality of a place?

3. Does signage, amount and design, impact in better user evaluation of a commercial street?

​

Due to increased branding and commercialisation of places, signages have started taking over the building facades. Even after the regulations by Delhi Outdoor Advertising Policy (2008) on designing of signage taking care of the built surrounding and design of signage to enhance user experience, not much has been brought into practice in the last 10 years. Where cleverly planned and placed signage can enhance user experience of any built environment, on the other hand, uncontrolled or poorly planned, out of context signage can degrade the spatial quality of the same.

Uncontrolled signage is mainly seen as a result of the mixed use typology of buildings emerging all over the world, each floor of the building is assigned with varied function which is not communicated through architectural facades. Commercial signs are hung on building exteriors to communicate the function to the pedestrian. This mostly ends up damaging the visual outdoor aesthetics with each floor having its own branding as signs and disproportioned poorly planned aesthetics and placement in the hurry compete with each other to attract users.

​

Download the full paper here.