In 2013, the Forest Preserve of Cook County was well underway with renovating their holdings in advance of their 100-year anniversary. A beloved site, the Little Red Schoolhouse, had opened a new nature center building within the past decade, but was missing accessible outdoor trails and signage. The site has a high number of visitors that come in family and school groups, and is a favorite stop for groups with developmental learning challenges. In order to address many of these concerns, Pulse Design was hired to provide a new approach to signage that would be accessible to all visitors regardless of learning and language barriers.
Working in conjunction with Hitchcock Design Group, who designed enabling gardens and handicapped accessible paved pathways, Pulse Design developed interpretive content that connected visitors to the gardens, restored prairie and lake, using their senses. A series of three-sided kiosks were designed with custom laser-cut icons. Each sign feautes three brightly colored, photographic panels, which provide fun nature facts and species identification.
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A series of 13 smaller signs were created to tackle the accessible barriers that the facility faced. Each sign featured a flashcard-type design with a large tactile raised photo, large raised tactile type, braille, and language translations for spanish and polish. A custom sign language illustration was also provided to help non-verbal learners as well as the deaf use the signs as learning opportunities. "It was great to see everyone from the smallest children through teenagers, running from sign to sign, touching the graphics and trying the sign language movements" Mary Chiz from Pulse Design observed. "The signs have been really well received by our visitors" Julie Vandervort, manager of LRSH added, "they love them and the new gardens."
