Click To Watch Video

On July 28th, the Grand Vision Transportation and Growth and Investment Working Groups hosted an informational forum on how Regional Wayfinding can be utilized to make the Grand Vision a reality.

The forum was led by Mark VanderKlipp, President of Corbin Design. Earlier that day, Mark spoke with Melissa Smith about the ideas behind the forum on 7&4 News Today. You can watch that video here.

The forum was held at 3pm on the University Center campus of Northwestern Michigan College. You can read our story from the forum below:

Why Consider Wayfinding?

A key issue to transit is finding it.

Because the GV is a six-county effort there is an on-going conversation to see how the six transit agencies in our region connect. One of the goals of the Transit Subcommittee is to make finding transit easier (for example the bus stops).

What better way then, to explore how to do that, than to consider Regional Wayfinding.

But what is Wayfinding?

“Direction for people in motion,” said Mark VanderKlipp, President of Corbin Design. “Wayfinding helps to organize perception in the visitor’s mind.”

VanderKlipp led the informational forum on how Wayfinding can be used not only to improve finding transit, but also to create a region's sense of self, in effect, its brand.

Wayfinding, then, contributes to a sense of place and security.

Typical goals include:

• Define the region
• Connect Communities
• Design Brand Unity, Awareness
• Use Existing DOT assets
• Increase Visitor Confidence
• Flexible Systems Clarifying Circulation, Parking, Transit Opportunities

click to enlarge

An example that VanderKlipp used was work that Corbin Design did in Fox Cities, Wisconsin. The project covered 18 communities with a population of 225,000 people. You can see an example of the wayfinding used in the region with the photos on the right.

Downtown Traverse City has already engaged with Corbin Design to use wayfinding to define the Warehouse District – i.e. where it is, how to get there.

So what is the relationship to the Grand Vision?

There are the obvious, direct correlations. The Grand Vision thinks on regional terms. There are six counties involved (Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Wexford). The goals of the Transportation committee is to improve the region's transportation system. Growth and Investment works towards improving the region's prosperity in existing/planned growth areas.

Housing works to improve the region's housing options. Food and Farming seeks to increase the region's  local agriculture. And Natural Resources seeks to protect the region's water resources, forests, natural areas, and scenic beauty of the region.

click to enlarge

And thus, to accomplish this, it becomes important to connect communities.

When you connect communities through wayfinding, there is a perception of equality for all the communities said Jeff Corbin. Corbin was also on hand for the forum. He is the founder of Corbin Design. For instance, he said, in Columbus, Indiana there was an economic investment increase in all areas that was covered by the regional wayfinding system. Corbin pointed out that when the project started all those communities were not equal. One was larger, one was down-trodden, others were on different planes in relation to the others.

But through the development of a regional wayfinding system, the result was that all the communities were placed on equal footing. Consequently, all communities received increases in economic development.

If you would like to learn more about Wayfinding you can visit Corbin Design's website.

There they have case studies of Regional Wayfinding from across the nation and across sectors (Transportation, Hospitals, Corporate/Retail, Government, Entertainment).