Clear signs

Student project that helps refugees

Four students, one lecturer and seven days of intensive work - such resources were enough to design a communication system for a medium-term refugee reception center located at ul. Wołoska 7 in Warsaw, for families and mothers with children. The center was quickly set up in a seven-story office building. It served not only as a dormitory, but also as offices for psychologists, doctors, lawyers and social workers. It also provided work, study and play rooms, a dining room, a laundry, a hairdresser and a clothing "store".

Design Challenge

The main task of the project was to contain the informati on chaos, which caused important information to miss its recipients. It was also important for the system to be quickly and cheaply manufactured and adjusted to changing needs and functi ons of the rooms.

The one week long workshop started with interviews with the coordinators of the centre as well as an on-site inspection. Then, we identified the existing categories of messages divided by function and location. They became the starting point for our work – creating three groups of messages and deciding where they should appear and, equally important, where they should not appear.

This resulted in a consistent modular system of visual communication, made up of orders (blue), prohibitions (red) and information (yellow). A clear colour code supports spatial orientation and deciding how one should act in relation to a given message. A single module is the size of an A4 sheet. A colourful sheet printed with the right content is inserted into a plastic sleeve. This way, the system is not only more durable, but it also allows quick introduction of changes.

Designers