Wayfinding in the UK has a perception problem
Outside the major cities, it’s almost always treated as a signage exercise. A procurement line. A box to tick in a funding application.
It’s not a budget problem. Plenty of well-funded projects produce wayfinding that could be located anywhere because nobody asked what made this place different before specifying the posts and panels. Signage doesn’t equal wayfinding.
The places that get it right ask a different question first.
Not “how do we direct people?” but “who are we, and how should this place feel?”
Wayfinding is an extension of place identity. Its streets, its people, its history and its future. When it reflects all of that, it stops being infrastructure and starts being part of what makes somewhere worth visiting.
Every town, high street and local destination deserves that thinking.
Whether it’s Middlesbrough, Penrith, Bolton or Gibraltar at Air we work with clients to realise the full potential of every place, always rooted in what makes it genuinely unique.
AirDesign Wayfinding Placemaking PlaceIdentity DesignStrategy MakingPlacesPeopleLove
