MANSFIELD — Jodie Perry helped create the Mansfield Rising plan in 2019 as the leader of the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development.
Fast forward five years and now Mansfield Mayor Perry is a step closer to implementing another action item from that plan: creation of a “wayfinding” signage program in the city.
Two design consultants with Guide Studio in Cleveland, who have worked with city leaders and other local organizations on schematic illustrations of the program, provided a demonstration on their efforts Tuesday evening to City Council members.
Perry said there are two primary goals to wayfinding, which integrates navigation and communication tools to provide people with the necessary information to reach their destinations, find parking and more.
“It’s part first impression of the community and part making sure visitors can get around,” the mayor said after the meeting.
“And it’s not just out-of-the area visitors. It could be folks that maybe don’t come into downtown very often. If you think about any time you go into a city where you don’t know where you’re going, you look for those kind of points of direction,” Perry said.
“I think that when you come into Mansfield, there’s room for improvement on that. So I think it’s an aesthetic thing, as well as a functional piece of it,” the mayor said.
According to an article on the NationalBranding.com website, “In the dynamic urban tapestry of modern cities, efficient navigation is indispensable for both residents and visitors. Municipal wayfinding plays a pivotal role in facilitating seamless urban exploration, enriching the overall experience, and nurturing a positive city perception.”
Perry said the design work by Guide Studio cost $27,000. The city used $22,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds already designated for wayfinding and branding and that Destination Mansfield-Richland County contributed $5,000.
Other organizations who participated in the effort were Downtown Mansfield Inc., the chamber, the Richland County Regional Planning Commission and the North End Community Improvement Collaborative.
(Below is a PDF showing the wayfinding presentation offered by Guide Studio during a Mansfield City Council meeting Tuesday evening.)
Perry said the city worked with Guide Studio on signage as part of the upcoming $17 million Main Street Corridor Improvement Plan. Construction on that effort, also identified in the Mansfield Rising guide, is scheduled to begin as soon as February.
She said local officials launched the new effort with Guide Studio in April with the goals of:
— improving the front door/gateway and welcoming experience into the city.
— bringing cohesiveness to Mansfield’s overall sign program.
— reflecting a modern city that cares about itself.
— incorporating the new branding effort in the sign program.
“These are some of the driving forces that we took to heart as we applied the design concepts,” Wilhelm said. “As part of the discovery session, we did some journey mapping where we got maps out (with local leaders.)”
He said committee members helped determine key destinations in the city, which they used in developing a “destination hierarchy.”
“We figured out, based on those destinations, what paths vehicles and pedestrians were taking to get to those destinations,” Wilhelm said.
The schematic drawings showed signs throughout the city with similar designs and type fonts and then also used a color-coding system to indicate various districts in the downtown area.
“When you get downtown, it becomes a little more intricate and that’s where the color coding system comes in and people can start understanding (where they need to turn, etc. to reach their destination),” Fromet said.
First Ward Councilwoman Laura Burns asked Perry where the wayfinding project ranked on her overall list of priorities.
The mayor said the citywide signage program will not be enacted all together.
“That’s one thing I do wanna level with (council) about. Short of money falling from the sky like it did a few years ago … but I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” she said.
“So what we know you’ll see first is the downtown side, just part of the Main Street (corridor plan) that’s scoped out in the project … that’s happening,” Perry said.
“My next order of importance is those gateway signs (into the city). So the next step for us is really to start getting the schematics so that we can get some (price) quotes. That would be a big thing,” she said.
“I think the (city) park signage is another topic that we think is a higher priority. Some of the other things will probably come in as we get money.
“Depending on what it is, it also can be different pots of money. A sign going at a treatment plant can be paid for differently than the sign going in the parks, and so on and so forth.
“At this point, we don’t have any official (price) quotes or anything like that.
“This is kind of the first step. The next step is to get those schematics and then we can start to get a ballpark price,” the mayor said.