Allentown City-Wide Parks Signing System

SGA was lead consultant in the development of a comprehensive signing system for Allentown’s extensive parks, recreation, and trail system. Allentown has the largest park system of any City in the United States with a population under 150,000 people and the system is still growing via its expansion trail network that acts as regional recreational hub. SGA comprehensively inventoried more than 700 hundred signs throughout the city and created a photo documented database and mapping system of each sign. Working from the inventory, an analysis was performed which documented the more than 50 different sign types and designs that had been deployed over the past 30 years and determine the issues and opportunities. An entirely new systems of conveying information that included branding, designation/arrival, vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian directional, trailblazer, mile-marker, interpretative, and regulatory was developed. This signing palette was developed in partnership with the environmental graphic designers to create a visual vocabulary for all of the signing that also incorporated print and web branding, logo, and iconography to form a truly visually cohesive brand for the city’s entire park system. SGA located every sign in Allentown’s 35 parks as well as miles of trails and on-road bike routes, totally more than 500 signs. A message schedule was created for each sign. The city has been systematically deploying the system as parks are being in renovated or through neighborhood zones of the system.