What is signage concept design?
Good wayfinding depends on more than a strategy — it depends on how each sign is designed as a physical object. Signage concept design is the discipline that shapes it.
Signage concept design is the discipline of shaping the physical carriers of a wayfinding system — the totems, blades and panels that make its logic visible — from their form and scale to their materials, structure and relationship with the architecture.
It sits alongside wayfinding strategy, not beneath it — two distinct disciplines (see signage vs wayfinding). A strategy decides where information should appear and what it should say; signage concept design decides what the sign that carries it actually is — and whether it is resolved as an object, not just legible as a graphic.
A sign is designed as an object — not just an image.Form, structure, material — before artwork
Why is the carrier as important as the strategy?
Signs don’t guide on their own — they carry a system’s decisions.
Signs are the physical carriers of information generated by the wayfinding system: decisions, directions, destination hierarchy and movement sequences. Their form, scale and placement decide whether that information is actually read — so shaping the carrier is as important to us as devising the strategy behind it.
How is a sign developed, from concept to fabrication?
As a 3D model — resolved before a single graphic is finalised.
In many cases a sign element is developed as a 3D model in SolidWorks, exportable as a STEP file, so its geometry, proportions, structure, fixing method and fabrication approach are assessed already at the concept stage:
- 3D modelling — the carrier built as an object, not a flat elevation.
- Contextual visualisation — placed within the real architecture, in its light and materials.
- Real-scale testing — how the sign performs from the user’s eye level, from different approach directions, at genuine viewing distances.
- Fabrication readiness — STEP geometry a workshop can build, checked while the concept is still on the table.
What is each concept evaluated against?
Not appearance alone.
- Legibility & information clarity
- Sign ergonomics — reading height, angle, distance.
- Production cost & fabrication complexity
- Durability of the chosen materials and details.
- Architectural intent — how the sign sits within the space.
Every direction is reviewed with the architects and the client’s team, then developed step by step until a clear, informed decision can be made.
Why develop several concepts per project?
The right solution emerges from comparison.
For a single project we often develop several parallel concepts for the sign carriers, testing different proportions, materials, levels of architectural integration, visibility and budget impact. Only by comparing them can we identify the solution that is genuinely right — and give the client an informed, confident choice.
The directions that don’t make the final cut still shape it. A window into that process is our Concept Samples.
How is this different from graphic sign design?
Engineering-grade, not artwork-only.
A graphic approach ends at the artwork on the face of a sign. Signage concept design treats the sign as a built object — modelled in 3D, tested at real scale, resolved for structure and fabrication, and integrated with the architecture around it. It is the same rigour a wayfinding strategy applies to the routes, applied to the physical carrier that expresses them. It is the sign-object side of a BIM-led signage workflow, where the same model later carries a defined level of development through to fabrication.
See the process, not just the result.
Our Concept Samples gather signage-carrier studies from across our projects — the parallel directions explored before a final design is reached.
See Concept Samples Signage & Wayfinding