Projects: Ryerson’s Tidy, Minimalist And Effective Digital Signage Set-Up
April 11, 2016 by Dave Haynes
People who know me will be amused as hell by the notion of me attending a fashion show. But I have been to several in recent years, because I have a nephew who is at Ryerson’s fashion school in Toronto.
The 4th year students have a major year-end show that attracts a lot of fashion industry people looking for new talent, so the event is seen and run as a big deal. It was Sunday, and as the mob of our extended family waited in the lobby of the new Student Learning Centre in downtown Toronto, I noticed Ryerson does a pretty good job with its digital signage.
The school has tiled five narrow bezel displays side by side at the elevator bank, three running messaging and positions 2 and 4 running schedules. There’s nothing fancy about what’s done, but what I liked is that the messaging was somewhat minimalist, easily read from a distance, and there’s some continuity to the look and feel.
The school has almost 90 screens running across multiple buildings around the urban campus, and along with tidy content, Ryerson has a microsite specifically focused on its signage program that includes guidelines and best practices, and enables departments and programs around the school to book ads or follow directions on how to build their own.
Really great to see a project that’s thought through from several angles, particularly post-launch. It’s a safe guess that in many organizations, tracking down who runs the signage program would take hours and days of forensic work. If you are starting a campus of workplace program, a little study of what’s done here would be time well spent.
As someone running an out of home ad network, you already have several screens that you manage across different locations. You already have your hands full finding the right locations for your displays and handling business operations.