New Research Provides Important Findings for Sign and Visual Communications Industry
Nearly 100 academics, planners, designers, and sign industry professionals convened at the University of Cincinnati for the 2014 National Signage Research & Education Conference (NSREC), focusing this year on issues concerning regulations. NSREC, sponsored by The Signage Foundation, Inc., (SFI) and the University of Cincinnati (UC) Colleges of Business and Design, Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP), was held Oct. 8–9 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
ISA’s government relations team has received several new tools in its arsenal when it comes to working with communities around the country on sign code issues. Research presented during last month’s National Signage Research and Education Conference (NSREC) will be used by ISA to help better inform communities and regulators about the importance of signs to businesses and to their communities. Temporary signage and illuminated signs are two areas where this new research will be useful.
The 2015 National Signage Research & Education Conference will be held in Fall 2015 at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.
For more information on The Signage Foundation or NSREC, please contact SFI Executive Director Patti Herbin at [email protected].
HIGHLIGHTS OF RESEARCH PRESENTED AT NSREC 2014
The sessions and research presented at NSREC should be available for download on www.thesignagefoundation.org 10/15/2014 by early November.
- Building the Experience: Respecting Constraints While Pushing Variables (Keynote Session), presented by Craig M. Vogel, FIDSA, Associate Dean, College of DAAP, University of Cincinnati, Kelly Kolar, CCO, Kolar Design and Mary Dietrich, COO/Client Leader, Kolar Design. The keynote presentation focused on how regulations vary significantly from one city to another. How can mandated standards coexist with creative solutions? Every rule system should respect community values, while also allowing for creative interpretation. Leveraging case study examples, the presenters demonstrated environments that have consistently achieved the regulatory requirements of each setting, while utilizing thoughtful design as a catalyst to create places to live, work, play and heal whose powerful impressions have meaningful impact for the individuals who experience them.
- Best Practices for the Regulation of Temporary Signs, presented by Wendy Moeller, AICP, principal planner and owner of Compass Point Planning. Communities often struggle trying to find the right balance when considering regulations that apply to temporary signs, but fail to find any significant resources or materials on the topic that establish good practices for temporary-sign provisions. SFI sponsored research about temporary signs that was used to develop the Community Guide to Regulating Temporary Signs. This session outlined research, and main points and practices in the new guide, that will serve as best-practices guides for communities nationwide.
- The Economic Impact of Illuminated Signage: Results of a Survey of Users, presented by Charles R. Taylor, John A. Murphy Professor of Marketing and senior research fellow at the Center for Marketing and Public Policy Research at Villanova University. Taylor explored the impact of restricting illuminated signs on business success through a national survey of 750 sign owners. He found the ability to have an illuminated sign helped many businesses remain viable.
- On-Premise Sign Research Review, presented by Philip Garvey, senior research associate, The Pennsylvania State University. This session detailed research conducted at Penn State through the years.
- Viewing Signs Through the Eyes of the Beholders: Perceptual Evidence from the American Grocery Shopper Survey, presented by James J. Kellaris, James S. Womack/Gemini Chair of Signage and Visual Marketing, UC College of Business. Kellaris shared results from the four-year longitudinal BrandSpark/Better Homes and Gardens American Shopper Study. He updated previous research on how shoppers are influenced by signage. He also included new research into shopper thoughts on sign regulations.
- Economics, Behavior and On-Premise Signs, presented by Craig Berger, Chair of the Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design Program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Berger showed the impact of design metrics on the effectiveness of modern on-premise signs. He reviewed the relative merits of each design area and formulates strategies for both the design and integration of on-premise signs into an overall design approach.
- Reassessing the Importance of Sign Law in the Planning Law Classroom, Alan C. Weinstein, Cleveland State University, Eric Strauss, Michigan State University, and Dawn Jourdan, University of Oklahoma. These three educators detailed the mismatch between the importance accorded sign regulation in planning-law courses and the importance sign regulation has in planning practice at the local government level. They detailed how they have integrated sign regulation into planning-law courses in graduate programs approved by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.
- New Tools for Looking at the Importance of Signage, presented by Professors Chris Auffrey and Henry Hildebrandt, UC. This session summarized the results of a graduate seminar at DAAP at UC. Graduate students used 3M Corporation’s Visual Attention Service (VAS) visual computational modeling software to analyze on-premise signage within urban-street and suburban-road contexts.
- Evaluating Stakeholder Perceptions of Form-Based and On-Premise Signage Codes in Streetscapes, presented by Pat Crawford, Ph.D., PLA, Associate Director of the School of Planning, Design and Construction (SPDC) and an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Michigan State University. This study examined the impact of traditional and form-based codes on two model streetscape transformations and should enable the development of improved or “next gen” model sign codes.
