The renaming: Student sign installers have what it takes to replace signage across campus
Graphic Communications Management students Tim Aranas, Reanna De Vera, Zam Valdehueza, Evin Wong and Business Management student Liana Yadav are working as student sign installers over a six-month period to change all the interior signage within TMU campus buildings. They are playing an important part in the university’s name change and our exciting next chapter.
Teamwork makes the dream work. That’s the secret to success when undertaking a project of this scale and complexity, explain five Toronto Metropolitan University student sign installers who have been working on the ground, Monday to Friday since November 2022, as part of physical renaming efforts of the university.
Working with Facilities Management and Development (Facilities), they were responsible for replacing all interior signage within TMU buildings. Beyond communicating important information about our campus, the new signs usher in a new chapter for Toronto Metropolitan University and provide an opportunity to update signage, ensuring an emphasis is placed on inclusion.
“We’ve been working on the sign changes since November and it's definitely turned out to be a much bigger job than we first envisioned,” says first-year business management student and sign installer Liana Yadav. “We realized, as time went by, that this was and continues to be a very important task and a heavy responsibility.”
Read on to find out more about this formidable project.
Massive renaming effort
TMU’s sign installers play an important role in the renaming process, helping to replace a projected 8,500 interior signs over six months and into the summer. Including exterior sign-changes, the university will update between 15,000 and 20,000 signs, with completion projected for the summer of 2023, depending on factors like weather, city permit issuances and vendor delays.
Signage changes are happening every weekday, with student sign installers replacing thousands of signs across TMU.
“Signage replacement on the scale of a renaming is very different from our usual business of changing one sign at a time,” says Facilities Management and Development Director Nic de Salaberry. “In this instance there are thousands of signs that fulfil a broad range of purposes, and all need to be changed in an orderly way that ensures there are no gaps in regards to wayfinding, safety and clarity.”
A physical feat
University sign replacement efforts are much more involved and demanding than most might expect.
“Walking around our large campus space while carrying signs felt very physically intensive at first,” says Evin Wong, a fourth-year graphic communications management (GCM) student and sign installer. “We’ve definitely learned to pace ourselves.”
With a completed signage audit and sign update by Facilities, student sign installers split the tasks, with one of them creating and overseeing a checklist, another one mapping out an area, and one or two students putting up the signs.
Making campus accessible and inclusive
Beyond simply installing signs, the students also compiled data on whether signage and physical spaces met accessibility standards.
“Examples of accessibility issues include the height of signs which, in keeping with current standards, should be placed lower than before so that people who use wheelchairs can read the signs without straining their neck upwards,” explains Wong. “Another example is the use of braille on signs which was previously only a recommendation. Today, we will try to include it as much as possible.”
Function over form
The Graphic Communication Management program at TMU prepares grads for traditional and digital graphic communications industries. This is how GCM student sign installers bring a highly relevant skill set to their work.
“In general, people take signs for granted and don’t know how much thought goes into them,” says Reanna De Vera, a fourth-year GCM student and sign installer. “In GCM, accessibility and inclusion are a big aspect of what we learn when creating printed communication like signs, and to really think about the end user,” she says.
Campus signage goes beyond aesthetics and prioritizes usefulness.
“There's a difference between design that is static and just looks pleasing, and an effective design that communicates a message or intention clearly,” says Wong.
The next chapter
With the adoption of the new name, the university recommits to its core values and aspirations. The student sign installers feel their proactive efforts make them an integral part of TMU ‘s next chapter. “It's official. We're TMU now,” says Wong.
Yadav wants the TMU community to know that the signage replacements are ongoing and deliberate, and first-year GCM student Zam Valdehueza emphasizes the magnitude of the project; “A lot of people were involved in the name change, and are committed to the name change. A full transformation does not happen overnight, but we're definitely making it happen.”
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