This was a six-month project sponsored by Foley Designs, Bengaluru, and was carried out for Brigade Enterprises, a group engaged in real estate development in South India. The project was aimed at designing a system for way-finding and communication in Orion Mall, a lifestyle mega-mall, featuring specialty outlets, services, and restaurants, to address the growing lifestyle needs of a vast segment of the population.
The project required minute understanding of the need of an effective and efficient way-finding system by studying users and their interaction with their surroundings. Whether for shopping, hanging out, entertainment or dining, making navigation within the mall quick and easy for visitors was the ultimate goal.
Since the subject was vast and had many interconnected factors, the project was divided into logical hierarchical steps, after much study and research, and systematic analysis. Zoning was first carried out for retail shops and other facilities on each floor of the mall, followed by planning of facilities at important decision points and junctions. The signage system is the most important factor in way-finding activity and was designed to provide a unique visual identity to the mall, with special emphasis on the structural form.
This project involved a combined application of product, system and graphic design. But, the challenging part of this project was that the final product was to be a system that ‘supported’ the way-finding activity through appropriate communication means. This is the kind of design where the success of the design may not be discussed, but the failure of the system is quickly noticeable!
Nonetheless, the basics of design remain the same no matter how varied the requirement may be. This project is a beautiful example of how different disciplines of design interact and the fusion results in successful end products.