Beyond Sig­nage: Cul­ti­vat­ing Heal­ing Envi­ron­ments in Can­cer Care

Med­ical jar­gon is hard to fol­low, appoint­ments are stress­ful, and wait­ing rooms can feel exhaust­ing. The word ​“oncol­o­gy” or ​“can­cer” alone can car­ry a strong sense of fear, anx­i­ety, and overwhelm. 

Thought­ful expe­ri­en­tial sig­nage can bridge a phys­i­cal envi­ron­ment and a com­pas­sion­ate human expe­ri­ence, cre­at­ing spaces that feel wel­com­ing, com­fort­ing, and calming. 

When Bryan Health and Can­cer Part­ners of Nebras­ka built the April Samp­son Can­cer Cen­ter, their objec­tive was to con­sol­i­date can­cer care into a uni­fied, restora­tive space cen­tered on peace and healing.

The Chal­lenge: Bryan Health gave the Lat­i­tude design team cre­ative free­dom to devel­op a com­plete sign fam­i­ly that matched the building’s func­tion. In new­ly built health­care facil­i­ties like this one, spaces can feel clin­i­cal, cold, or insti­tu­tion­al. The design was very inten­tion­al on mate­r­i­al selec­tions, col­or choic­es, and finishes.

The Design-Build Solu­tion: Our design­ers kept two key­words in mind as they cre­at­ed a sig­nage sys­tem for April Samp­son Can­cer Cen­ter: Calm­ing and heal­ing. The sign designs used nat­ur­al wood grains, soft col­ors, and fin­ish­es that com­ple­ment­ed the building’s architecture.

In addi­tion to exte­ri­or brand­ing, wayfind­ing, and ADA sig­nage an out­door donor dis­play was cre­at­ed for the ​“Gar­den of Hope and Heal­ing.” Here, cus­tom plaques blend into the nat­ur­al sur­round­ings, pro­vid­ing a peace­ful place for reflection.

Read the full case study.

OSF Health­Care Can­cer Insti­tute deliv­ers state-of-the-art can­cer treat­ment, edu­ca­tion, and research under one roof.

The Chal­lenge: This five-sto­ry, state-of-the-art, award-win­ning insti­tute for can­cer treat­ment, com­pas­sion­ate care, and advanc­ing can­cer research also need­ed to be a place of clar­i­ty and calm. Keep­ing this new­ly built facil­i­ty from feel­ing over­whelm­ing and con­fus­ing for patients and vis­i­tors was cen­tral to this project.

The Design-Build Solu­tion: Inspired by nature, specif­i­cal­ly the flow of water, to gen­er­ate a sense of peace and calm while ori­ent­ing vis­i­tors to the space. The con­cept of flow­ing water is most promi­nent in the donor wall, which con­tin­ues to grow as peo­ple vis­it and decide they’d like to see their name there too. Unique flo­ral motifs for each floor were the themes to pro­gram every inte­ri­or space with appro­pri­ate room ID sig­nage, wayfind­ing sig­nage, fire safe­ty maps, ADA-com­­pli­ant code sig­nage, and more. Cus­tom sig­nage, vinyl accents, and wall graph­ics for com­mu­ni­ty spaces includ­ing din­ing facil­i­ties and cafes cre­ated a cohe­sive, wel­com­ing feel through­out the campus.

Read the full case study.

Join us in sup­port­ing the fight to cure can­cer by donat­ing to orga­ni­za­tions like:

Susan G. Komen Foundation

Amer­i­can Can­cer Society

Nation­al Foun­da­tion for Can­cer Research

Have ques­tions on health­care sig­nage? Con­nect today to start the conversation.