Penrith – Wayfinding and Information System
Client
Trueform Manufacturing and Technologies Group
Our Role
Wayfinding, Information Design and Cartography
Location
Penrith, UK
A wayfinding and information system for the gateway to the lakes. Air Design was commissioned by Trueform Group to to develop a town centre map and visual information system to promote the town centre, it's offer and history, encouraging visitors to spend time and explore.
Penrith is a market town on the edge of the Lake District with a longer history than most places its size. It’s been a Roman waypoint, a Norse settlement, a medieval frontier, and a Cumbrian market hub. The Giant’s Grave in St Andrew’s churchyard holds tenth-century Viking crosses. The castle in the middle of town dates to the fourteenth century.
We wanted the wayfinding to reflect that, not as decoration, but rather as a natural part of how the system looks and feels.
Mapping
The town centre map covers the walkable core of Penrith, marking landmarks, streets, and points of interest. Small information boxes sit alongside the routes, each carrying a single fact about a nearby landmark, a date, a name, something that happened on that spot.
To reflect Penrith’s history, the map draws on medieval cartography, picking up characteristic details without leaning on them too heavily. Landmark illustrations are drawn to sit between vector graphics and medieval engravings.
Parks and gardens are filled with stylised trees and hills, the way open land was shown in old county maps
Directional Panels
The directional side of each sign lists walking distances to Penrith’s key landmarks, paired with a circular overview map of the town centre.
Arrows are drawn with a slight ornamental quality, and each direction is supported by a landmark illustration, giving a visual clue of the overall area each arrow points toward.
The circular map references medieval volvelles, with a shadow so it reads as inset into the sign face.
"Our ambition was to create an identity that grows with the destination, not just its launch. "The identity draws on the same language as the architecture itself, open, natural, rooted in place, so that as new phases and concepts are added, they feel like a continuation of Al Huda Park's story rather than an addition to it."
James Brown, Director, Air
Each sign has an interpretive panel on its reverse, covering the landmark it stands beside. A short text introduces the building and its history, supported by archival photography and organised into a few focused sections. A QR code at the bottom links out for anyone who wants to read further.Interpretive Panles