Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council commissioned us to implement their town-wide wayfinding scheme to support the regeneration of Hinckley town centre, a historic market town in Leicestershire.
With 42 old, inconsistent and confusing signs dotted around a town renowned for its many winding pedestrian walkways, high streets and parks, navigating on foot was confusing.
A detailed strategy and design concept had already been developed by David Lock Associates before we were appointed, specifying a new sign hierarchy and sign family. We won the competitive tender to implement it – covering design finalisation, 3D illustration, statutory consents, manufacture, installation and removal of the existing signage.
Client Goal
An intuitive wayfinding scheme that works seamlessly from visitor arrival, and throughout their time exploring the town. Installations that feel part of the town’s rich history, with visual cues to local heritage and geography. Due to the “heads-up” map layout, exact positioning was vital, so extensive surveys were carried out to ensure each sign element was exactly aligned with the surrounding environment.
Design, Surveys and Consents
Site surveys were carried out across all proposed sign locations before manufacture commenced, confirming positions, sightlines and ground conditions against the approved strategy. Where adjustments were needed, these were resolved at this stage.
Many signs on the public highway and in council car parks required consent from Leicestershire County Council as the highway authority. We coordinated the consent process with LCC and qualified highways contractors, working to the Leicestershire Highways Design Guide throughout. Design finalisation included confirming the bespoke circular mapping panels for the wayfinding totems and producing construction drawings. Fully editable artwork was handed over to the council on completion.
The Mapping Panels
The wayfinding totems use a bespoke 650mm circular heads-up map, orientated to match the direction of travel and incorporating a 5×5 grid street finder. The heads-up format was proposed by David Lock Associates over a conventional north-up layout because it eliminates the need for a visitor to mentally rotate the map – in a town centre, most people are not facing north, so a north-up map requires a cognitive step that heads-up removes entirely.
Related: Metrocentre Launches Living Map to Boost Shopper Experience
The challenge for us was that the installation position of each totem has to be precise, as a misaligned heads-up map is actively misleading.
The map design also required us to develop 3D illustrated representations of a selection of the town’s most prominent buildings and landmarks – those significant for their historic or cultural importance, or visually distinctive enough to serve as reliable reference points for a visitor navigating on foot.
To enhance the heads-up approach, each landmark was illustrated from multiple angles, so once added to a specific map, it visualised the angle of the building the visitor would see from their current position.
These illustrations were incorporated into the map panels to give visitors a visual cross-reference between the map and the streetscape around them.
Destinations covered include the railway station, the Crescent, the bus station, the library, the leisure centre, St Mary’s Church, the Concordia Theatre, the museum, Hinckley Campus, Argents Mead, the Market Place, Queen’s Park, Hollycroft Park and the War Memorial Garden.
Related: Cyfarthfa Park – Wayfinding Strategy and Implementation
Manufacture and Installation
The full sign family covers wayfinding totems, car park directional totems, fingerposts, wall-mounted panels and jitty nameplates. A jitty is the Leicestershire term for a narrow pedestrian passage between buildings – what other parts of the country might call a ginnel or snicket. Hinckley has a well-established network of them, and naming them on the wayfinding scheme uses the town’s own language rather than a generic “pedestrian route”.
The black and gold colour scheme reflects Hinckley’s existing heritage signage, applied consistently across all sign types. All items comply with inclusivity standards for lettering size, contrast and legibility.
The redundant legacy estate was removed and sustainably disposed of as part of the same contract, resulting in a significant reduction in the overall number of signs on street.
Related: Case Study: Wayfinding & Interpretation at Stover Country Park, Devon
Outcome
The completed scheme replaces an inconsistent legacy estate with a coherent wayfinding network across Hinckley town centre. The council holds fully editable artwork for all sign types, allowing content to be updated as the town’s offer changes.
“The Council and stakeholders have been delighted with the services provided by Morgans Consult. They provided a diligent and practical approach to achieve the delivery of the Council’s Wayfinding Strategy in Hinckley town centre, leading on the design, manufacture and installation of the wayfinding items and signage, and which has resulted in an enhanced public realm for residents and visitors.”
Paul Grundy, Senior Planning Officer, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council
If you’d like to find out more about anything featured in this article, just reach out to us on info@morgansconsult.com / 02920 672828.
