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Merit Award
Anaheim Resort Signage Program
Location
Anaheim, CA
Client
City of Anaheim
Design Firm
CommArts, Inc., Boulder, CO
Design Team
Henry Beer (Principal in Charge), Bryan Gough, Tamia Wardel, Margaret Sewell
Fabricators
TFN Architectural Signage
Consultants
TFN Architectural Signage, Griffith Company
Photographers
Brian Burnett, Kathy Osborne
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In creating the Anaheim Resort district, the City recognized the negative impact of the visual clutter created by the chaotic proliferation of signs competing for the visitor's attention along Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue. The design challenge was to create a new identity and signage program that could create a coherent and aesthetically pleasing vision for consensus and action. The design needed to capture the imagination of the existing businesses, yet entice them to sublimate their individual retail identities to achieve a unified "resort district". The design intent was to visually simplify and unify the area with a new identity, vehicular and pedestrian wayfinding, and a commercial identity signing system. The design solution supports the concept that the designated area would eventually become a garden district with widened streets, palm trees, and extensive landscaping. The identity captures the simple beauty of the ubiquitous California poppy.
Jury Comment: "An amazing transformation of a horrible street that brought order to visual chaos, softened the edge through landscaping, and helped generate a "sense of place" out of a bombastic strip. This project merited an award primarily for the great and noble transformation. Designers and cities with similar visual overload should note how to foster transformation and order for communities from this very visible example."
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