New Signs in the Works

On March 9, 2026, Reed community members may have been surprised to see new temporary signs briefly pop up on campus, with new graphics and design choices. These signs left Reedies with many questions, such as: where did they come from? and: who designed them? The signs, it turns out, were part of a joint project between Facilities and Strategic Communications & Marketing (formerly Public Affairs). The Quest reached out to Lauren Rennan, Director of Brand Strategy, for more information.

Rennan shared, via email, “Reed’s campus-wide wayfinding project aims to create a clearer, more intuitive, and accessible signage system. It is guided by best practices, informed by community feedback, and developed with wayfinding experts. The new system will address long-standing navigation and operational challenges while enhancing safety and the Reed campus experience.”

The project began in the summer of 2024, Rennan explained, when Facilities and Strategic Communications & Marketing began a collaboration to “address recurring signage issues and complaints, including unclear navigation, difficult maintenance, and inconsistent processes.” She pointed to issues with current signs being “fragmented, inconsistent, and overloaded with temporary fixes, creating confusion and operational strain,” along with many signs being “outdated, missing, or inaccessible.” 

The goal of this installation, then, was to “establish a modular, durable system to improve navigation, accessibility, and operational efficiency across campus, and intentionally designed to adapt as campus needs evolve.” Throughout the process, the team collected feedback from “students, staff, faculty, alumni, visitors, and even neighbors, through various methods including surveys, focus groups, and travel-along sessions.” 

The team chose to work with architectural firm Gensler, Rennan said, “for their expertise in wayfinding systems.” Gensler is the largest architecture firm in the world by revenue and number of architects, and has worked on projects like the JPMorganChase Tower in New York, the University of Washington basketball facility, and “the world’s largest AI data center campus.” Their home page currently spotlights an article about “How AI is Making the Workplace More Human, Not Less,” which caught my eye. Rennan did not answer a question about whether any form of AI was used in the making of these signs.

This Quest writer found only two mentions of the project in past email communications – a mention of a Gensler pop-up on June 13, 2025, and a survey in the Campus News from June 26, 2025 – but Rennan says student feedback was heavily involved throughout the process, including “multiple focus groups, prototyping sessions, two targeted surveys, intercepts, and a full campus audit.”

The project is currently in the “Design and Prototyping Phase.” As part of this, the temporary signs that appeared several weeks ago were installed between the east parking lot and Eliot, and Gensler conducted “travel-along sessions” to evaluate them. These included a new map under the existing map by the psychology building and several tall, rectangular signs with arrows pointing to nearby buildings.

Student responses to the temporary signage, at least among those who had strong opinions, were relatively negative. Students expressed concerns about the accessibility of the design, the locations of the signs, the outsourcing of the project to an external design firm, and the choice to dedicate funds to this project rather than other capital improvements.

B Smith ’26 noted that the signs were difficult to read due to their low visual contrast, and did not appear to adhere to the ADA Accessibility Standards. These standards for signage direct that characters should contrast with their background with either light-on-dark or dark-on-light color schemes. Some of the yellow-on-red text on the map, in particular, was difficult to read, especially with glare.

Lily Larsen ’26 shared concerns about the design being outsourced to an external design consultant (rather than, say, Reed art students or faculty), which, in their opinion, failed to maintain graphical consistency with existing signs and used less accessible design language. Larsen said, “This represents an increasing and concerning trend in the administration of Reed College and many of its peer institutions in which decisions are outsourced to external consultancy or design firms which do not hold understanding or space for the culture or context present in the specific community they serve.” 

The temporary signs featured QR codes for community members to provide feedback, which Rennan says will be taken into consideration: “Feedback highlighted refinements such as larger type, clearer arrows, adjusted map colors, and revised placement. For example, a proposed sign near the library conflicted with high-traffic events like Thesis Burn and will be relocated.”

The project remains in progress; although Rennan said timelines are still evolving, no installation will occur prior to the end of this academic year.