NO. 07, 2013 NO. 07, 2013

Jane Davis Doggett Traveled through an airport lately? The graphic system standards you see November 2013 today are the innovations of an EGD pioneer who Jane Davis Doggett with her dog Liberty and her art, eg harnessed color, scale, and which borrows the simple shapes and bold colors of

EXPERIENTIAL GRAPHICS MAGAZINE signage. At 84, she is still working, drawing from her the alphabet to humanize background with Joseph Albers to develop two- and three-dimensional graphic works, some of which massive public spaces. are in the permanent collection at Yale University.

Doggett is also credited with the concept of thematic graphics to brand airports as gateways to their communities. At Miami International, her logo was based on the sea nautilus and used orange and plum—colors favored by the Latin Americans who make up a large portion of the area population. Her design vision for roadway Submission Guidelines signage was white sculptural arches inspired by the arches that typify Miami’s Spanish architecture (1982).

Doggett was the first to codify airport terminals

Deadline: Doggett was the first to codify airport terminals by letter, and she added color byand letter, and she addedshapes color and shapes to helpto travelers toward their airport destinations. On roadway signs leading to the airport, she recognized the need help travelers toward their airportto group airline destinations./terminal destinations for legible viewing distance from cars. Pictured is Houston On roadway signs leading to theIntercon tineairport,ntal Airport, which opened she in 1971. January 31, 2014 — eg magazine recognized the need to group airline/terminal

G38299_BACK_44-64.indddestinations 46 for legible viewing distance from 11/12/13 6:32 PM cars. Pictured is Houston Intercontinental Late Deadline: Airport, which opened in 1971. February 14, 2014

For more information visit www.segd.org WWW.SEGD.ORG or call 202.638.5555. GRAPHIC EDITION ANDREAS UEBELE EGD PIONEER SKETCHBOOK NPR HEADQUARTERS Published by ADIDASAt Baltimore-Washington LACES InternationalJANE DAVIS Airport DOGGETT (1980), DoggettDAVID used airportHARVEY logos as Society of Experiential Graphic Design unifying graphic elements in the terminal.

G38299_Covers.indd 1 11/12/13 6:19 PM Jane Davis Doggett with her dog Liberty and her art, which borrows the simple shapes and bold colors of signage. At 84, she is still working, drawing from her background with Josef Albers to develop two- and three-dimensional graphic works, some of which are in the permanent collection at Yale University.

JANE DAVIS DOGGETT Traveled through an airport lately? The graphic system standards you see today are the innovations of an EGD pioneer who harnessed color, scale, and the alphabet to humanize massive public spaces. BY PAT MATSON KNAPP INTERVIEW BY TRACY TURNER

rained at the Yale University School of travelers through airports, used standard fonts Art and Architecture in the mid-1950s to unify messaging, and introduced a family during its modernist heyday, Jane Davis of arrows and symbols to coordinate with her TDoggett was one of the first designers to envision “ABC” terminal identities. She has also been how architecture and graphic design should credited with the concept of thematic graphics work together to help people navigate unfamiliar that branded airports as the gateways to their spaces. As her colleagues in architecture communities. were designing massive public arenas, transit “I had the privilege of working with systems, airports, and cities to serve the booming Jane at her company, Architectural Graphics post-World War II economy, she recalls, “I got Associates, on projects for Newark Airport, interested in the human scale. How would a Jacksonville, and Tampa,” says Sue Gould, person coming to these behemoths find his way FSEGD, President of Lebowitz | Gould | and be secure in understanding the place?” Design (New York). “She was enormously Graduating from Yale in 1956 with an influential in her time, and deserves MFA, she launched a pioneering career in a recognition for her innovations that are now yet-unnamed field—environmental graphic intrinsic components of airport engineering design. In the next four decades, she created and architecture.” graphic identities and wayfinding systems for Tracy Turner (Tracy Turner Design, New a wide range of public spaces, most notably 40 York), another protégé of Doggett’s, met with international airport projects. Her contributions Doggett recently at her home in Maine. They to EGD include many concepts considered spoke about her days at Yale, her early career standard today: She initiated the use of color- and airport work, and the ideas that still inform coding and super-scaled letters to help guide the practice of EGD today.

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G38299_BACK_44-64.indd 47 11/12/13 6:33 PM At Houston Intercontinental Airport (now George Bush International), Doggett expanded on the use of Alphabet A and used the “ABC” concept for terminal recognition and indexing airlines to the letter. Signage was integrated with the architecture.

At Memphis International Airport, which opened in 1961, Doggett created a new airport aesthetic: signs built into the architecture, “not hanging like price tags and labels.” All messages, including airline titles, were standardized in one font and contained in fascia bands and in beams spanning corridors, à la the Greek classical frieze. Memphis was her first airport project, collaborating with Mann & Harrover Architects.

Starting from her first airport project in Memphis, Doggett saw the logic of using a standard font as a unifying element. She created “Alphabet A,” adapting it from German Standard, a forerunner of Helvetica.

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G38299_BACK_44-64.indd 48 11/12/13 6:33 PM “Typically the architects would run out and take a picture of their building before anyone could get a sign on it. They viewed signs like measles. But the big mass public projects scared them—because it was going to be easy for people to get lost. So environmental graphics really emerged from the nature of the demands on large-scale architectural projects and the environments they created.”

How did you get involved in assignments from Architectural provided by the major tenants, such environmental graphic design? Record. They sent me to Europe to as the airlines, rental cars, or the It actually came about at Yale. At the meet and photograph architects and coffee shop. There was no design school at that time, everyone was engineers. I met Alvar Aalto and Pier budget; graphic design as we now thinking large. It was prophetic. The Luigi Nervi and some outstanding know it didn’t exist. architects were conceiving projects young emerging architects, so that The first thing I did was to on a huge scale: sports arenas, mass was a terrific time for me. develop a standard font for use transit systems, airports, massive throughout the facility. This was urban renewal and design. Projects Your first big job in EGD was the the genesis of “Alphabet A.” It were new, complicated, and big. It Memphis Airport, right? was based on German Standard, oc­curred to me to think about the Roy Harrover, an architect and a typeface similar to Akzidenz person coming to these behemoths friend of mine from Nashville and Grotesk. It became our foundation and what the human scale should be Yale, and his partner Bill Mann for systemizing a graphic program. and how this person would find his won the competition for the new I was able to convince the airlines way and make use of the place. Memphis Airport. Roy knew I was to relinquish their logos because exploring interfacing graphics with in those days some were good but And how did the architects react at architecture on a grand scale. He some were just awful. The alphabet Yale? Were they receptive? said, I think this is a chance for us to carried each name and was a way of They were extremely open. They do some good architecture with good cutting down the visual clutter. recognized the issues. At the same graphics here. We were under 30— time though, no one anticipated but we had that glorious audacity of So you concentrated on creating a the huge role graphic design would youth and plowed ahead. Yale had recognizable font as an organizing ultimately play. given us no barriers; we just did not principle. Did you look at many know we could not do things. fonts? How did you settle on one? How did you start your career? This commission, which we I knew serif fonts were problematic My first job was with George Nelson. won in 1959, was exciting for all of for long-distance viewing. I thought There, I worked on the permanent us. Roy and I went all over to look sans serif was better for distance; it’s exhibit at Williamsburg—the at different airports around the simpler, with basic strokes defining anthro­pological part—and it is country. What we found for graphics each character and an expanded still up. Among the shards of 18th was a sorry state—actually a void. letterform was better for viewing century Chinaware, we would find There may have been a budget for from afar. Letter spacing is also vintage pieces of Coca Cola bottles “signs,” with a monetary allowance important. Generally I favored a which we also installed, as part of similar to the “hardware” budget, more open letter spacing since it the whimsy and human connection about $5,000 for the whole job. Signs was easier to read. I de­veloped a and dating the layers. were considered to be in the domain laboratory of sorts for exploring Then I moved on and had of sign fabricators, to be produced these visual issues. the good fortune to receive under construction contracts or

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G38299_BACK_44-64.indd 49 11/12/13 6:33 PM “My red and blue color-coding concept designated the north side serving one group of airlines and the south side serving another. (I had argued that calling them “North” and “South” zones, as the engineers had originally done, would be confusing for the public. People don’t always reason like engineers, and at night, who would ever figure out North and South?).”

I remember our visual-distance large overhead roadway signs. The it, even today. They still use the logo viewing experiments from when result for the driver was a read-out I created for them, and the blue and I worked for you. Specifically I from 2,000 feet, in advance of his red color-coded icons. remember what we learned from decision point. Tampa wanted to achieve a our study on arrow forms: that In subsequent DOT traffic special and unique travel experience. what was a clear and successful studies it was found that my system They were a great client. The form at 100 feet was not the same approach of advance indexing airport director, George Bean, had at 450 feet. You always felt that significantly enhanced the safety a “walking-distance budget.” The only highway engineers had and ordered flow of traffic. It first public use of the Westinghouse studied letterforms for traffic also eliminated the number of shuttle “people mover” came into conditions, and you believed signs required. The savings in being—what we called a “horizontal designers should be involved in sign elimination while achieving elevator”—to zip passengers from this process. attractive, well placed, and legible the Landside Building to satellite Yes, and we continued to study the directions helped my firm get many airside buildings where the finest details of “read out,” as the other airport projects. airplanes docked. need was there for signs to function My red and blue color-coding for safety and organized traffic You also designed sign systems for concept designated the north side flow on new, unfamiliar roadways. hospitals? serving one group of airlines and the From Memphis I went on to do the Yes, and sports arenas, universities, south side serving another. (I had Houston Airport and it was there I and subway systems. We did argued that calling them “North” and expanded on “Alphabet A” using the Fairfax Hospital, a large project in “South” zones, as the engineers had “ABC” concept for terminal recogni­ Virginia that serves as a major DC originally done, would be confusing tion and then indexing the airlines to facility. Hospitals are so similar to for the public. People don’t always the letter. airports in benefitting by display of reason like engineers, and at night, The initial concept stemmed destination goals and color coding. who would ever figure out North and from a roadway/message space The planning and thinking are South?). problem. At the exact turnoff into the same process. There are some The red/blue split goes through the separate terminal, there simply hospital wayfinding trends I avoided, information space in all levels, from wasn’t enough space for a sign to such as floor markings. They can be lead-up roadway signs to departing display the airline titles in legible obscured by people, wheelchairs, passenger zones and baggage claim. sizes at the automotive approach etc., and they bring maintenance The passenger just follows the big distance. The idea I came up with— problems. red or blue symbol to the airside and which nobody had done in an airport through to the baggage claim zone. before—was to display the airlines Do you have a favorite airport? This greatly simplified directional in advance, keyed to a huge terminal Yours, or another? flow. The big color icon can also letter (A, B, C, etc.). Then airline Well for me it is still Tampa—a be seen across a great distance, titles were dropped and just the big landmark for me and very special. whereas the airline title would be letter was displayed, preferably on They have taken such good care of too small to read.

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G38299_BACK_44-64.indd 50 11/12/13 6:33 PM At Orlando International Airport (1991- 91), Doggett created a kite theme—a nod to kite-flying events in the area and an appeal to children traveling through the airport to visit Disney World. To enhance the theme, she designed terminal entrance placemarkers that integrated individual letters, colors, geometric containers, and kite configurations.

Tampa International Airport, which opened in 1973, still uses the logo Doggett created. Her red and blue color-coding concept designated the north side serving one group of airlines and the south side serving another. Engineers wanted to call them “North” and “South,” but she prevailed. “People don’t always reason like engineers, and at night, who would ever figure out North and South?”

Doggett is also credited with the concept of thematic graphics to brand airports as gateways to their communities. At Miami International, her logo was based on the sea nautilus and used orange and plum— colors favored by the Latin Americans who make up a large portion of the area population. Her design vision for roadway signage was white sculptural arches inspired by the arches that typify Miami’s Spanish architecture (1982).

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G38299_BACK_44-64.indd 51 11/12/13 6:33 PM At Baltimore-Washington At BWI, Doggett designed International Airport (1980), Doggett monolithic directional pylons used airport logos as unifying graphic that incorporated directories and elements in the terminal. wayfinding information.

You also innovated by creating Spanish arches that typify Miami’s simple shapes and bold colors. I used themes for airports and other Latin architecture. The avenue of Biblical and Latin quotations as public spaces, didn’t you? arches is often displayed as Miami- text inspiration for the bold graphic I innovated and encouraged “gateway Dade’s thematic icon. expression. Limitation is the key. themes” for the airports, with the I also thought these images and philosophy that the airport must The airport experience has changed text might be expressed in a larger serve more than as a house for quite a lot, hasn’t it? context so I created large panels in airlines. It needs to express the Everyone used to love to go to the an exhibition context. I have been unique part of the world and the airport, to go to the shops and good designing all this by working in people it serves—geographically and restaurants. Now you spend time in Adobe Illustrator Vector forms, and culturally—much as the train stations line going through the “cattle chute” it is just amazing what the computer served as grand entries in their day. and taking your shoes off. The airport tools allow. At Memphis, with my experience has become such an “Greek frieze” message bands, inhuman ordeal to go through. The Do you have an assistant or do you I complemented the architect’s domination of the security apparatus do everything yourself? theme of elegant white column is crushing the aesthetic. I hand draw everything and my ceiling supports in the spirit of assistant transposes it in Adobe the Greek Revival architecture Tell us what you have been doing Illustrator sketches. Then we of the South, which the Memphis lately with your new artistic tinker back and forth. In 2010, area personified. At Baltimore- efforts. Yale asked me to do an exhibition Washington, I used nautical It started with a Christmas card I so I selected panels for a Talking signal flags in a spirit of patriotic sent to friends in which I used the Graphics exhibition that showed for flag-waving to express the airport passage from Ecclesiastes, “There six months. I became so intrigued authority’s goal for the airport to is a Season - unto all things there with the medium that I started doing serve and compete as the Capitol’s is a season...” and I illustrated it scenic images—waterscapes. My third national airport. At Tampa, with simple geometrics: a circle, medium is what I call electronic the first of the new Florida jetports, a triangle, a square, a rectangle, silk screening. I render each I used Florida sun and sea colors to trapezoid, etc. The response to this design segment in selected colors enhance the authority’s “Gateway card was overwhelming and people by Pantone and adjust the color to Florida” image. And at Miami, my wrote me suggesting I do a book percentages as I need. It takes me design concept was a grand roadway expanding on the idea. So I did, and back to an earlier period in my life entrance of white sculptural arches called it Talk­ing Graphics. It is based artistically. I am having fun! to support signs, in the vein of the on the signage premise of using Photos: Courtesy Jane Davis Doggett

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