The YMCA of Greater New York has 23 locations that serve the five boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Each community center is tailored to its neighborhood population which ranges in ethnicities and spoken languages. It was our privilege to create a signage system as distinctive as the YMCA logo and accessible to people from all walks of life.

Unlike certain signage systems which are tailored to specific buildings, this one needed to work for a variety of branches that have no architectural commonalities. As part of our strategic planning, we surveyed the current wayfinding experience and conducted on-site questionnaires with current staff and members at all YMCA locations. This helped us understand their guests, their needs, their likes, and dislikes so we could map an improved and standardized user journey.

After determining the key decision points and types of signs needed for the wayfinding system, we created a schematic design that was visually distinctive and could easily communicate with non-English speaking guests. We settled on classic YMCA colors to attract attention and friendly iconography depicting the use cases for various rooms.