Relationship, Scale and Design Considerations
This interpretive sign design illustrates the pre-colonial and industrial history of the dam and a remarkable return of salmon to the Coquitlam River. Red is used as photo caption background colour, is an appropriate highlight colour selected from the photo of the spawning salmon and stands out in contrast on series bullets against the cool gray-blue background. The diagram on the right depicts a series of events described in the red bulleted text call-outs. The perspective view of the diagram offers a distant past and near present highlight, with transparent blue arrows indicating the past departure and present return of salmon.
Large massing of four main rectangular design elements bleed to the edges of the sign. The sign is designed around a circular theme, and the diagram flow is also circular – both echoing the cycle of returning salmon. The colourful and dynamic underwater salmon photo starts the reading of the information from upper left around to the lower right; a decorative top header and text overlap at the top.
The client supplied photo images with reproduction rights. The black and white historical photo of the dam is the least visually arresting element; therefore it is relegated to move the eye through the lower left corner of the sign. Inset photos repeat the proportions of the larger photos and help move the eye around the diagram. A bar of project partners’ logos officially signs everything off at the bottom.