COV – Cambie Street Corridor
Cycling Through Identity: Shifting and Modernizing Wayfinding into an Urban Experience
The City of Vancouver’s Cambie Corridor is a visionary urban planning initiative designed to foster a vibrant, transit-oriented community. Central to this vision is a new cycling path which necessitated a thoughtfully designed signage program to balance neighborhood identity with intuitive wayfinding.
Boyle Design was selected by the City to develop unique design program for the five-mile cycling path.
Crafting a Moving Narrative Through Design
Following an extensive study of the communication challenges and an exploration of graphic mark-making, a cohesive visual design system was created for the corridor. Designed from the cyclist’s perspective, the program considered the elements of movement and speed, street grade, repetition, and orientation to ensure functionality while also crafting a narrative experience.
The path spans five distinctive neighborhoods, with signage that reflects each neighborhood’s unique identity in a contextual and visually engaging way. The design program includes: a customized font and color system specifically designed for asphalt application; primary entrance signage and neighborhood entrance signage; orientation and neighborhood identity graphics; plus safety and transportation markings.
A custom condensed font was developed exclusively for the program, featuring a “street” variation tailored for stencil application on asphalt. This innovative approach redefined signage by merging functional wayfinding with the dynamic storytelling of urban graffiti.
This “moving narrative” shifts the cycling journey into a storytelling experience, blending practicality with creative expression. We also developed a comprehensive graphic and implementation standard to ensure consistency and longevity for the signage program.
The work produced for the Cambie Street Corridor identity fully captured our expectations and was a creative response to a complex project. Our team thoroughly enjoyed working with Dennis and the work produced was high quality, on time, and on budget. The final product was integrated into the Cambie Corridor Public Realm Plan, which was unanimously approved by City Council. Community members and Councillors specifically commended the creativity and the aspect of fun that the design brought to the project. Our staff team would highly recommend Boyle Design.
Jessie Gresley-Jones
City Design Studio Planning,
Urban Design & Sustainability