Shannon Leigh Associates (Agency) – Creative (Schematic), Technical (Design Documentation), Environmental, Client Presentations and Collaboration, Site Surveys, Wayfinding Assessments
“The signage at El Camino Health needs a remodel. The campus is changing, the brand is changing, the business model is changing, so the experience of the people coming for healthcare has to change along with it. We want it professional, we want it clean, and we need to get it through the city. Show us something.”
-Client’s first words
The entry experience for clients in the healthcare field focuses more on subtle and clear presentation over wildly colorful or “fun” in any way. We brainstormed the concepts of simple joined shapes, simple curves, and clean, legible surfaces that stand out but are not intrusive.
From Sketches to Presenting Schematic Design
I feel a thrill every time I go into a meeting with new artwork to show a client, a shock of excitement and anxiety. I miss that feeling when I go too long without taking the risk of suggesting a design for a multi-million dollar project.
Here is a selection of the refined sketches I produced for the ECH entry monuments. These were the final designs the client had whittled the larger list down to.
While I use Lorum Ipsum regularly, the client needed to see the actual content on the signs from the beginning. Since I had already surveyed the site and established the paths of travel to client-facing destinations, this was an easy exercise.
Design Documentation
Once the client selected their preferred design from this group, we went to work establishing the specifics. Moving back and forth between 2D elevations at scale in Illustrator (CADtools) and 3D models in SketchUp, I was able to render the structures into images that made discussion and deliberation about the design decisions more concise. The excruciating detail requested by the client on these structures included the number of coats of paint to be applied to the surfaces!
Eventually, the client chose two design directions for the arrival experience. The structures selected for the main entry points involved separate branding and wayfinding structures built within each other. As the traveler approaches the campus past the entry monuments, a secondary set of entry monuments give wayfinding information leading to the major destinations.
The final decision point that the client used to select these options was simple maintenance. Sometimes the most important element in the design decision process is something that you never considered to be important during the brainstorming process.
The lessons learned from working on this project included anticipating the unexpected, being prepared for a ridiculous amount of detail, and keeping the designs clean and easy to read.
Fabrication & Construction Administration
In the intervening months between the approval of the final designs and the installation of the structures on site, I coordinated with the fabrication shop to make certain the intent of the diagrams was translated into the production of the final piece.
Using the earlier SketchUp models, I generated precise diagrams depicting the fixtures’ internal structures and lighting patterns in precise detail. These renderings not only answered questions for building purposes but for the complex installation that would be required.
These hyper-accurate models also provided the engineers with everything they needed for their assessments and streamlined the process of permitting from the City of Mountain View.
No plan survives the real world unchanged, but with this detailed level of work, the execution was much more reliable.
The Finished Product
After 30 months of work, the final structures were installed on the campus. 27 illuminated signs, 120 non-illuminated plaques, channel letters, and fixtures, all under a $2 million dollar budget.
Now the plans used for these fixtures are in use as the exterior brand standard applied to other locations around Silicon Valley.
