Group zeroes in on tourism signage

Wayfinding Task Group zeros in on tourist sign designs

BY HUGH MUIR

Date published: 6/17/2008

BY HUGH MUIR

"I was driving through Stafford County on I-95 a couple of weeks ago," said Kathy Frazier, head of a firm that creates signs telling tourists where the local sights are, "when it hit me like a ton of bricks that there were no Stafford signs. Where, I asked myself, am I?"

County officials believe they are within a year of providing a visual answer to that question.

Frazier runs her own company in Staunton, in the Shenandoah Valley. Her group made the signs for Jamestown's 400th anniversary celebrations last year, and earlier this year Loudoun supervisors approved the company's design for signs directing tourists around their county.

Last Thursday Frazier talked to the Stafford Way-finding Task Group, comprising 14 officials including two county supervisors, the director of planning and zoning, and Stafford's tourist manager, as well as people from the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The meeting was the second for the group. The first was a month ago, when Frazier Associates presented six designs to the task force. From the comments made then, Frazier said Thursday, "We are down to three designs. After today's discussion, we'll boil them down to one by next month."

Aside from agreeing that "Stafford County" should appear on the signs, a spirited two-hour discussion debated colors, sizes, shapes, a slogan, use of stone (rough, smooth, any?), and "What should a stylized river look like?" of information that would be easy to absorb by a driver passing by at high speed.

Three levels of signs are proposed: "Gateway" signs to catch the eye of people entering the county on I-95, U.S. 1, and 17, and State Route 3; "Trailblazer" signs on primary, secondary and tertiary roads with arrows to tourist attractions; and small pictographs to tell drivers they are on the right road.

The basic colors will be maroon and marine blue (with white lettering). Gateway signs could be up to 12 feet wide and 9 feet high, perhaps on a stone base. "A stone base for the gateway says you have really arrived someplace," suggested planning director Jeff Harvey.

Trailblazer signs could be 4 feet by 5 feet in size, mounted on 12-foot posts. The pictographs could be an eye-catching square yard in size.

Date published: 6/17/2008