For more than 100 years, Green Lake Park has been a beloved escape for Seattle locals, providing a peaceful and beautiful natural refuge in the midst of the city's hustle and bustle. The park's designer, John Law Olmsted, envisioned connecting urban populations with the environment through parks and green spaces, and Green Lake Park is a testament to this idea. Throughout the years, the park's facilities have adapted to meet the changing needs of Seattle's residents, but the core remains the same. Despite some disrepair in the park's infrastructure, its stunning natural surroundings still draw large crowds throughout the year, and the park has had a significant impact on the lives of many people in Seattle.
Design Concept
My design concept for the environmental graphics in Green Lake Park revolves around the theme of wind, which is a key element of the park's natural environment. The family of icons are lineless, universal, and usually feature human figures, making them easily recognizable and relatable to visitors of all ages and backgrounds. The typeface selected is sans serif, ensuring that information is clear and legible, even from a distance. The color palette is inspired by the natural beauty of the park, incorporating shades of green and blue that represent the landscape and the lake. The overall design concept aims to create an inviting and cohesive visual system that enhances the visitor experience by seamlessly integrating into the park's surroundings.
Colors and typeface
Famly of icons
To improve the current orientation sign of Green Lake park, I redesigned the signage system by incorporating icons and location names directly onto the map. This eliminates the need for visitors to search back and forth multiple times to find their desired location. Additionally, I added a prominent red mark to indicate the visitor's current location on the map. To further assist visitors, a set of icons with simple explanations next to the map to aid in navigating through Green Lake easily. This new design system aims to reduce confusion and improve the overall experience for visitors to the park.
Since my concept of Green Lake park is about wind theme, I created public art that can in- teract with the wind and with people and also mimic the shape of the wind. The top of the spiral attaches to the top of the pillar. When the wind blows, it will spin around. The ideal place to put it is near the lake, next to the path where lots of people pass by and the wind blows the strongest here.
The old Aqua Theatre in Green Lake offers an ideal site to showcase a mural that incorporates placemaking. Inspired by the theme of wind, the mural features dandelions on the backdrop of a blue sky. This mural can uplift visitors to the park, even on dreary days, infusing a sense of joy and rejuvenation.
There are two ways people can interact with it, for example, taking pic- tures with the dandelion pretend we’re blowing the pappus. Another way is standing/ sitting on the 3D dandelion halfway above the ground, which is made of plastic so it can be a perfect resting spot for people jogging around Green Lake. In additional, the Aqua Theatre is located south of Green lake park so this placemaking can play a role as a mark that you’re halfway around the lake.
