George’s Quay Public Realm—Signage & Wayfinding

George’s Quay Plaza is located in Dublin on the southern bank of the River Liffey. It is a complex of buildings connected by a central Public Realm situated between Burgh Quay and Hawkins Street to the west, and City Quay and Talbot Memorial Bridge to the east. The design brief was to create an integrated signage and wayfinding system that would direct, inform and communicate to people who use the public realm and the buildings and civic spaces that surround it. The design solution had to be clear, consistent and user friendly in order to be understood by a wide variety of users. This included the use of braille across the entire scheme.  

The design takes an integrated approach and works with the original architecture of the scheme, its fixtures, fittings and existing layout. The graphic language and form of the signage scheme was inspired by the Vitruvian principles of durability, beauty and usability. A map motif based on the geometry of the triangle was developed to reflect the order of the buildings which helps to locate the user and has in turn become the identity for the space.

A system of various sized mounted totems were produced with glass panels and aluminium frames providing wayfinding information, maps and directional instructions on how to navigate the site. Digitally printed graphics mounted to the inside of the glass panels allow for updating tenant, directional and map information.