Ealing Council appointed a team to reimagine key areas within three libraries across the borough, with the goal of creating innovative Community Hub spaces.

I was invited to join the team to lead the design and delivery of new signage and wayfinding.

A key part of the brief was to establish a coherent visual identity across the three libraries, while helping users navigate the renewed, flexible spaces.

Central to the project was the design of moveable, adaptable furniture that can be easily reconfigured for different uses. This approach enhances the libraries’ community offer and ensures these vital civic spaces continue to serve the evolving needs of local residents.

Given the flexible and adaptable nature of the architectural interventions, the signage and wayfinding elements needed to be easily updated by library staff.

To future-proof the designs, we developed a set of signage and wayfinding templates. As a team, we agreed that Microsoft Word, a software available on all library computers, was the most practical choice. This allowed staff to simply edit the templates to update noticeboards and create temporary signage for events and special occasions.

Taking cues from the materials, modularity and flexibility of the architectural elements, the visual identity is built around geometric, modular shapes. Squares, rectangles and triangles align on a dotted pegboard background, enabling an infinite number of consistent layouts.

To maintain coherence across all three libraries, we selected a system font as the primary typeface. Humanist sans-serif Trebuchet was chosen for its warmth and legibility.

Inspired by the architectural material palette, the colour scheme combines shades of blue, teal, yellow and orange, creating a unified identity across the three sites.