Envi­ron­men­tal Graph­ics Set the Scene at Lake Vil­la Dis­trict Library

Set­ting the Scene with Signage

Envi­ron­men­tal graph­ics set the scene for learn­ing at the new Lake Vil­la Dis­trict Library.

Sto­ry­time at the library is a favorite for many kids. And the chil­dren who vis­it the new Lake Vil­la Dis­trict Library in Lin­den­hurst, Illi­nois, are in for a treat. 

Dur­ing the con­struc­tion of the new library, a large area was set aside for a children’s read­ing room. It’s lined with book­shelves in the shape of hous­es that hold pic­ture books, pup­pets, and puz­zles. Behind the house-like shelves is a cityscape back­drop, which was cre­at­ed with a dig­i­tal graph­ic print­ed on vinyl. 

The library board worked with the archi­tec­ture firm Stu­dio GC to devel­op the plan for the new build­ing. We col­lab­o­rat­ed with their teams to final­ize the signs, pro­duce them, and have them installed. ​“They had a great vision for what they want­ed the children’s area and the entire library to look,” says Dan Sala­m­one, our Chica­go area sign expert. ​“We took their vision and brought it to life.”

Inte­ri­or Signage

The inte­ri­or sig­nage at Lake Vil­la Dis­trict Library spans all three floors. With a dis­tinct wood fin­ish and translu­cent acrylic back­ground angle, it mar­ries the wall sur­face with the sign. Direc­tion­al sig­nage on the main floor directs guests to the adult col­lec­tion, busi­ness cen­ter, study rooms, and pub­lic computers. 

Youth and young adults are direct­ed to the low­er lev­el where they can find age-appro­pri­ate read­ing mate­r­i­al, imag­i­na­tive play areas, and a gam­ing room. And the upper lev­el is for admin­is­tra­tive offices.

The library was set to open while the library team was still final­iz­ing mate­r­i­al choic­es for the sig­nage plan, our team devel­oped tem­po­rary sig­nage to greet guests to the new library. Once the plan was per­fect­ed, the final styl­ish archi­tec­tur­al sig­nage was installed. 

“We love to be involved from the very begin­ning of the design-build process, but sig­nage isn’t always what peo­ple are think­ing about when they begin plan­ning. With a project this big, they just want­ed to take things one step at a time,” Sala­m­one says. ​“In this case we were hap­py to be able to cre­ate tem­po­rary signs to get them through the grand open­ing and then install the per­ma­nent sig­nage when they were ready for the next step.” 

Exte­ri­or Sig­nage Gives Direction

Our team col­lab­o­rat­ed with the archi­tect and con­struc­tion team to come up with a straight­for­ward solu­tion for exte­ri­or wayfind­ing. The build­ing ori­en­ta­tion and prop­er­ty lend itself to intu­itive wayfind­ing but it was still nec­es­sary to make clear direc­tions for high traf­fic areas like park­ing lots, book drop, entrance, etc.

Fun, intu­itive, and wel­com­ing. These were each accom­plished at the Lake Vil­la Library. If you have a sig­nage chal­lenge, we’re up for it. We’d real­ly like to help. 

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