Directional Signage

At Target’s 2015 launch event in New York for its Lilly Pulitzer collaboration, guests entering the event space found directional signage promoting the #LillyforTarget hashtag—as well as providing directions to offerings such as a juice stand.

The Bata Shoe Museum celebrated its 20th anniversary in Toronto last year. To encourage guests to explore various spaces within the museum, organizers used a maze theme: At the entrance, guests were given “clue cards” that encouraged them to find the answers to puzzles by entering different galleries. Maze-like markings in hot pink on the floor served as directional signage that led guests into various parts of the venue.

The Golden Globe awards are known to bring a crush of parties all under the roof of the Beverly Hilton on one night. Directional signage on flatscreen monitors in the lobby during the 2014 events directed guests to the various parties, minimizing confusion and delays as well as the necessity for staff intervention.

At the inaugural Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas in 2013—and at every incarnation since—the goal has been to facilitate a sense of inclusivity and positivity among festivalgoers. To that end, staffers held signs to show they were available to answer any questions, including directing guests to their destinations within the event that spanned 15 city blocks.

At the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in Los Angeles in 2014, even directional signage leading guests to seating got an arty, rustic look in keeping with the rest of the event's chic decor.

Ford Motor Company’s display at the 2011 Model Central Florida International Auto Show in 2010 featured directional signage resembling road signs bearing the names of actual highways around Orlando.

The TED Conference made its annual visit to Long Beach from February 28 to March 4.

At Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs event in 2014, organizers eschewed a traditional red carpet in favor of stairs leading to the event space emblazoned with a custom typography message bearing the name of the occasion.

In 2013, New York’s famous Costume Institute gala had a punk-inspired theme. Nodding to the genre’s British and American origins, designers dressed the museum’s staircase with American and British flags made entirely of 150,000 red, white, and blue roses.

At the Corcoran Gallery of Art gala in Washington in 2012, a baroque-style gobo decked out the museum’s grand staircase, which is lined with marble statues and busts.

In its first year in Canada, 2014, the TED conference decked Vancouver Convention Center's stairs with color-blocked sections printed with the conference's tagline, "The next chapter starts here.”

Saveur hosted its Summer BBQ in New York in 2014. To get attendees excited about what would greet them within the outdoor culinary event, the words "cocktails," "sweets," "photo booth," "music” and others decorated a staircase.

Each year, E3 takes over multiple halls in the Los Angeles Convention Center, as well as its lobby areas and on the plazas outside. The show and its vendors take over stairs for marketing and branding, as in this example from 2013, which used both the stairs and surrounding columns.

Cole Haan took to New York in 2012 to introduce its Chelsea Pump, marketed as a shoe that can be worn late into the night. As part of the brand’s “Don’t Go Home” campaign, it hosted dance parties at a venue where the stairs bore messages announcing reasons to stay out late.

Event designer David Beahm used votive candles in a snaking pattern down the the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s stairs for a private corporate event.

In a more straightforward take on the look, a display of 1,200 votive candles lined the stairs in the Great Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the opening-night party for Bullets Over Broadway in New York in 2014, greeting the 900 guests as they arrived from the St. James Theatre.

Sabra Dipping Company set up a pop-up dining experience called Hummus House in Washington in 2014. Within the space, stairs leading to the second floor were decorated with pots containing dried vegetables meant to represent various flavors of the brand’s hummus.

Moët & Chandon was the official champagne partner for Sex and the City 2, and as such, the brand worked with Warner Brothers to host an advance screening of the sequel at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago in 2010. The brand decorated the stairs at the venue with branded stars reminiscent of the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.

Engadget hosted a meet-up for its readers in New York in 2011. Not missing an opportunity to brand the venue for 1,400 guests walking the stairs, the AOL-owned tech blog used them as surfaces on which to plaster its logo.

For its first New York pop-up shop—a retail promotion aimed at driving buzz for this year's draft—the N.F.L. took over a 10,000-square-foot space in Midtown. To advertise the effort in the heavily trafficked area, organizers placed large decals and a countdown clock in the windows.

An enormous billboard made it hard to miss Target's Toronto pop-up store, the Minneapolis retailer's first event in Canada. The bright red sign combined Target's logo and colors with that of the Canadian flag, and marked the site of the temporary store for the Jason Wu collection on King Street West.

The 2011 NBC upfront used bright colors to grab the attention of passersby. Not only was the Sixth Avenue front of the Hilton New York dressed up for the occasion, NBC also parked double-decker buses custom-wrapped with its logo outside the venue.

Matching the color scheme in the cocktail space, large letter-shaped structures bookended by blue and white flowers marked the arrivals area of the 2012 BET Awards preshow dinner in Los Angeles.

Colorful arrows (and some smiley faces, for added pep) led guests to the festive event.

Based on feedback from the 2016 event, organizers added more wayfinding tools, such as signposts and maps.

To improve the flow of attendees through the food area, staff held color-coded menu signs that corresponded to the colors on the packaged food. Matuk said the system worked well and allowed 7,200 people to be fed in 45 minutes.

Organizers provided pre-stamped postcards and invited attendees to write a note to a colleague, friend, or family member and drop it into one of the mailboxes located around the event. Matuk said the purpose was to create a “nice human, analog moment in a digital, tech-forward environment.”

Organizers prominently displayed large "you are here"-style maps throughout the venue. The back of each map was a community billboard where they posted updates about sessions and after-hours events.

More than 320,000 people packed the streets of downtown Jacksonville, Florida, last year for One Spark, the world’s largest crowdfunding festival. Organizers overhauled the festival signage to emphasize interaction—with big results: At the end of the six-day event, attendees contributed more than $93,000 to creator projects, a 75 percent increase over the previous year.

Erica Boeke, the vice president of experiences for 23 Stories, said it was important to Teen Vogue to find like-minded, socially conscious sponsors, and to integrate them in a way that felt natural. The result was various stations set up throughout the event’s main walkway, marked “Style,” “Create,” “Read Up,” “Play,” and more. Each area had activities and merchandise from sponsors including Facebook Messenger, LifeWtr, Juicy Couture, and more.

A logo balloon caught attention overhead.