Good Measures launches to improve COVID signage systems

A new initiative has been launched which provides design-led solutions for socially-distanced spaces through a range of vinyl wayfinding stickers.

Good Measures is the collaboration between interiors studio InterestingProjects and vinyl specialists Puck Studio, both based in London.

InterestingProjects co-founders Joana Filipe and James Mason were facing a dearth of work during the pandemic and decided to explore how workspaces might change in layout.

Their long-term collaborator Puck Studio director Dave Gibbons was also considering these ideas at the same time.

Gibbons says: “We realised pretty quickly that people would need social-distancing signs and we started to see the usual hazard-style health-and-safety versions cropping up in various places.”

Gibbons calls these designs “depressing” and says that the bland signs can become “white noise” meaning that they have little impact. “We wanted to try something a bit different,” he adds.

The goal was to create designs that were clear and impactful, which also fit in with aesthetic and atmosphere of the spaces they were displayed in.

The resulting products include reminders to keep a 2m distance, wash hands and wear masks, and are all displayed in colourful geometric patterns which can be mixed and matched. There are also vinyls to demarcate queues as well as navigational arrows.

The studio says that the entire range is modular because they can be applied easily to different settings in a wide range of combinations. They have also been designed to adapt to the changing rules for social distancing. The ruler vinyls, for example, which visualise a 2m distance can be trimmed down if these guidelines change.

They are aimed at galleries, offices, bars and schools and can be used internally and externally. So far the designs have been used by brands like Depop, Eve Sleep, in restaurants like Yard Sale Pizza and also the office of PR firm Zetteler.

The vinyl stickers are available to buy online and can also be customised to match individual businesses’ branding.

Good Measures was recently commissioned by Now Gallery in Greenwich for its reopening. The studio created a one-way system throughout its exhibitions which had to fit in visually at the space but also not be confused with the artworks on show.

The team says that the signs have had a positive response and that it now hopes to take the idea worldwide.

After a relaxing of lockdown measures, the UK has once again begun to tighten restrictions with rumours of a second lockdown. Whatever the level of lockdown, it’s likely that these kinds of signs will be a mainstay for spaces in the future.

InterestingProjects co-founder Joana Filipe says: “There is a lot of signage out there we want to challenge or re-think. That might well be the next step. Better signage for better spaces?”