CITY OF MIAMI BEACH
Branding and Wayfinding Program
Miami Beach, FL
Follow the fashionists and you?ll find Miami Beach?s white sandy shores and round-the-clock South Beach dance clubs, but you may miss the art museums, botanical garden and galleries. Tourism is big business in Miami Beach and a new signage system designed by MERJE will help you find your way on your next visit.
Working with City officials, stakeholders and the community, MERJE designed a wayfinding program influenced by Miami Beach style, creating a brand identity for the city and at the same time balancing the functional criteria set by the Florida Department of Transportation.
Starting on the Macarthur causeway, which links Miami Beach to the mainland, a large Miami Beach gateway brands the City for highway travelers as well as visitors arriving on cruise ships in the Port of Miami. The brand identity is also utilized as a marketing tool for advertising, merchandise and other promotional materials used by the City. Miami Beach and its influence on style is the primary focus of the sign design. The guide sign face is simple, meeting FDOT criteria, but the back of the sign, the panel shape and brackets take on curved forms turning a seemingly simple sign into a distinctive element on the street, helping it integrate into an environment that has an overwhelming architectural context and visual presence.
The fabric of the City is comprised of three zones North, Mid and of course, South Beach. This urban wayfinding program organizes the street patterns and districts into understandable paths, nodes and points of arrival.