New Advertising in Dublin
- This topic has 669 replies, 66 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 10 months ago by
.
- Posts
@GrahamH wrote:
The i’s dot is missing from the Castle on the other side. Odd.
That’s going to be bugging you everytime you walk past it. Better get your Tipp-ex and step ladder!
Another in Mountjoy Sq.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/5495846482/sizes/z/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/5495843582/sizes/z/in/photostream/I wonder if the DDDA will follow suit. They haven’t erected any signage in Spencer/Point yet I don’t think. These would look well in Dún Laoghaire also.
So the first phase of the Way Finding signage scheme is more or less complete, in time for St Patricks Day and the traditional start of the tourist season. I have to say they make a great addition to the cityscape. There are some minor tweaks required. Some units face in confusing ways but this is a feature of their square design. Its worth saying that a round signage unit works no better, as seen in Docklands where signage can face the wrong way completely. Its not the end of the world however.
In some instances the choice of attractions is odd, eg at Christ Church Place the sign directs you to Francis Street, when I would suggest The Liberties would make more sense.
I would also suggest that a uniform series of Character areas should start making an appearance, eg Old City, The Liberties, City Markets Area, South Georgian City, etc. The idea should be to direct people to areas as well as individual attractions. This will help businesses to locate themselves to visitors and sweeten the pill of the inevitable removal of brown finger signs.
Phase 2 now beckons – due to be completed by June. This will see the remaining units plus 20 large map panels located at various strategic points such as O’Connell Street, College Green, Capel Street etc. Some of the posts are already in place. I think overall about 70-odd finger posts were proposed.
Phase 2 should also see the start of the removal of brown finger signs around the city….really a MUST if this scheme is to make a difference to the quality of the city centre environment. And not just the signs but many of the poles they are mounted on. The City Council’s Roads Dept are instructed to remove the brown signs. I wait in expectation! This has to happen DCC!! We are in a changes world now and we have to start presenting our city centre as an attractive place to visit, not as a dumping ground for every sort of municipal tat.
The signs are not good though…I see a rash of new poles erected around the City Council offices and quays preparing for new traffic signs. Traffic signs and directional signage remains a MESS in this city. No coordination. No urban design input. No clarity to the driver. No consistency of design.
Still I have to say FAIR PLAY to Dublin City Council for delivering a good quality way finding scheme. :thumbup:
@StephenC wrote:
So the first phase of the Way Finding signage scheme is more or less complete, in time for St Patricks Day and the traditional start of the tourist season. I have to say they make a great addition to the cityscape. There are some minor tweaks required. Some units face in confusing ways but this is a feature of their square design. Its worth saying that a round signage unit works no better, as seen in Docklands where signage can face the wrong way completely. Its not the end of the world however.
Still I have to say FAIR PLAY to Dublin City Council for delivering a good quality way finding scheme. :thumbup:
I agree with your congratulations of DCC for a job well done here. They get rightly criticised here for some of their more questionable policies but they do have their good days and achievements as well and this is one of them. They certainly do add a lot to the city centre. They’re stylish and informative signs which help you navigate the streets of our great city. It’s great that you can actually say that about Dublin now. Wayfinder signage has been a blind spot in Dublin and Ireland more generally and it’s fantastic to see it being addressed like this.
Could you put up pictures/renders of the panels which will form part of phase 2 of this project, Stephen? It’d be great to see them so that we can keep an eye out for them going up in the next few weeks.
@StephenC wrote:
Cant help yet I’m afraid….you’ll have to wait.
Ah that’s a pity Stephen. Must just keep an eye out in Town for them then. Between these map panels and the maps on the pay stations of the related Dublin Bikes scheme and it should be a fool-proof means for tourists and locals to find their way around the city.
btw, does anyone know of any news re expansion of the Dublin Bikes scheme? I remember reading that they were going to expand it to 5,000 bikes and a couple hundred stations. The early part of this expansion was to put stations down around Heuston Station and in the Docklands. There doesn’t appear to have been much movement on this front lately which is surprising given the huge success of the bikes so far.
While I agree with OisinT that the signs are clean and elegant, I’m not sure how functional they are.
1. They lack distances. So the sign at square on Dame Street beside City Hall tells me that City Hall and the Guinness Stores are both west, but doesn’t say that first is 10 metres away and the latter over 2km, and thus beyond the walking capabilities of the infirm and/or unfit…
2. Either by accident or design, some of the direction are plain odd. The sign beside the Bull and Castle on Christchurch Palace directs people to Temple Bar east along Castle Street, rather than pointing north.
2. The square column, while a useful way of frustrating the traditional Irish sport of sign twisting, imposes a constraint that all signs must be opposed at multiples of exactly 90 degrees. This is a bit inflexible particularly in the pre-Georgian parts of town where the street pattern is decidedly non-grid like. So the sign at the Peace Garden on Christchurch Place/Nicholas Street had the sign for Guinness Storehouse pointing ambiguously towards Dublinia, vaguely suggesting it lies at the bottom of Winetavern Street. I say had advisedly because today I notice that this has been fixed. Now none of the signs points ambiguously towards Dublinia; instead most of them point into the (permanently locked) Peace Garden!Yes I think you make a fair point about the distances. And the directions are at times oddly indicated. Its not perfect but its a vast improvement on the chaos and clutter that has existed until now.
Strangely enough, the pole right outside the Civic Offices has yet to be adorned with fingers. It’s still swaddled in green netting at the minute.
@Paul Clerkin wrote:
Thats because they’re waiting on a sign pointing upwards like a giant finger 😉
Haha, that could be it. I didn’t know it was a Phase II sign StephenC, we’ll probably have to wait a few weeks for it to be fitted out then. Still no sign of the information panels yet.
Oh dear….seems like we are getting Phase II of the Wayfinding Signage on the cheap.
Just to refresh everyones memory. This project was meant to happen when the bikes were rolled out in 2009. It didnt start until May last year when the prototype was installed at City Hall. The promise then was that all would be in place by Sept 2010. Then we had the pallaver of the Irish language prominence on the signage even though mainly tourists use the signage. Phase I finally rolled out in March 2011 with the expectation of a fully completed scheme by June 2011.
Are you surprised?
Someone needs to have the Valuation Office made aware of this signage if they are not; this is extremely valuable outdoor advertising; the country needs all taxes collected. If shortcuts are made then more tax is due.
No I suppose I’m not surprised. I’m resigned to it at this stage.
Never looked at the wayfinder as a source of free advertising to institutions in the city. Interesting take. I am sure however in the true Irish tradition these institutions feel that DCC is obliged to advertise their premises/businesses. Its worth stating however that Wayfinder was meant to have a cultural slant to help tourist navigate the city. Its not really commercial in the true sense.
Sorry I could have been clearer; I was referring to the Metropoles and 6 sheet installation concessions granted all over the primest spot in the city in return for a few bikes and wayfinding signage; which as you have clearly confirmed is being done Yellow Pack style.
Finally some energy into the last phase of the Wayfinder scheme. 20 new posts, mainly in the western part of the city centre are currently being installed so hopefully the full scheme will be completed in the next week or so. The teams are even retro-fixing some units where the signage didnt quite point in the right direction
This morning sees the unveiling of the map panels…at least the map panel at the top of Grafton Street. See http://www.dublincity.ie/Press/PressReleases/PressReleasesSeptember2011/Pages/Pedestriansfindinganewwaytogetaroundcapital%E2%80%99sstreets.aspx
The panel will look great I’m sure. They seem to be a panel and a signage post combined. Other locations for these units include O’Connell Street (3), the rail stations and College Green.
All in all taking in the dublinbikes and the on street advertising the public realm has received a real boost from this unified scheme. Apart from the point about distance/walking time not being shown on signs, the design of the whole suit of street furniture is first class.
Alas the need to update the signage regularly can already be seen with the many “Lighthouse Cinema” signs…perhaps Smithfield would have sufficed. And the Docklands scheme, once the standard to be met, now looks increasingly ragged. Some signs are broken to missing and no one has yet thought to update the map panels and units to show the Dublin Convention Centre! Surely most obvious?
Nah…maps on both. They look smart – honestly. Little DCC logo cut into the based. Backlit I believe.
Aint you got one in Smithfield yet?? 🙂
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
