Following a devastating fire, Germany's Düsseldorf airport urgently needed a clear, easy-to-read signage system. Traveler safety and ease of movement were key considerations, along with establishing a distinct identity for the airport.

The worst airport fire in German history occurred on April 11, 1996, when flames broke out in the busy Düsseldorf airport, quickly filling the terminal with acrid, toxic smoke. Travelers frantically looked for exit signs. In the ensuing chaos, 17 people died and 150 were injured.

A spokesman for the Düsseldorf fire brigade, quoted in European news accounts, blamed the high number of casualties on passengers "ignoring" emergency exit signs.

For airport management, having the signage singled out as a contributor to the disaster underscored the importance of maintaining a clear communications system in a crowded, public space. Prior to the fire, signage at Düsseldorf had become a clutter of airline logos and retail and service ads, with directional signs lost in the cacophony. "After our fire disaster, we knew we needed to make better signage and we needed to show passengers that Düsseldorf was making a fresh start," says Olaf Ebbrecht, a strategic planner at the airport. "We wanted to create an image that shows that we are creating something new and better than our former days."

To do so, Düsseldorf airport management turned to MetaDesign in Berlin. Founded by renowned typographer Erik Spiekermann, MetaDesign is Germany's largest design firm and is fast developing an international reputation for its process-driven systems design. It was earlier commissioned to develop the new graphic standards for the complex public transportation system in reunified Berlin.

Düsseldorf airport management first looked to MetaDesign to develop temporary signage so the airport could keep operating. In fact, just days after the fire, the airport reopened in makeshift tents and hangars, while workmen began reconstructing damaged parts of the terminal. With the summer holiday season approaching, Germany's largest charter airport in the Ruhr Valley would soon see tourist traffic swell from around 20,000 a day to 70,000. MetaDesign had six weeks to implement a signage system.

Its immediate assignment was to create signage that would be usable in the temporary quarters and then in the building corridors as the terminal gradually reopened. MetaDesign had to keep in mind that the interim system would be the basis for permanent signage, once it was decided whether to upgrade the old terminal or build a new one.

Another consideration was the competitive environment brought on by deregulation of Europe's airline industry. Düsseldorf airport was beginning to compete with airports like Frankfurt, 300 kilometers (187 miles) away, and Amsterdam, just 250 kilometers (156 miles) away. Until recently, most German airports had shared similar '70s architecture, and the same interior and signage color palette. But eight years ago, Munich opened a new airport, with a lighter, open-space plan featuring lots of glass and steel. It also broke from the pack with signs in white type on a light blue background, a key identity element. Other German airports followed suit. Stuttgart initiated a system using white type against dark gray; Frankfurt, white type against royal blue. "Düsseldorf had no recognizable identity," says MetaDesign partner Bruno Schmidt. "Also because of so many prominent red-and-white LTU charter service signs, it had become known as the LTU airport."

MetaDesign convinced airport management that the new signage had to be part of a larger identity system. "At first they saw us only as sign makers," Schmidt says. "But we explained that travelers need to recognize Düsseldorf from the moment they pick up their tickets from the travel agent. That required a whole new system of information."

With the six-week deadline looming, MetaDesign sent eight staffers to live at the airport, with support from colleagues back in Berlin. The Düsseldorf team worked 18 hour days, seven days a week, in a noisy, hot hangar. A Berlin production company was sent in to manufacture signs taken straight from designs on MetaDesign's computer screens.

The MetaDesign team used video and still cameras to analyze the airport's existing point of entry, departure and transportation, service and safety routes. From there, they developed nine navigational scenarios based on people arriving or leaving from various directions by car, taxi or underground train.

Over the years, Düsseldorf airport has been enlarged through piecemeal extensions. The result was a layout where passengers often have to travel long distances to get to a plane. People arriving by train, for instance, have to maneuver across train platforms and through tunnels to get to steps leading to check-in counters above ground. Passengers arriving by car have to be alerted on the autobahn as to which airport exit to take, then navigate through various arrival/departure exits on airport grounds to find the appropriate parking area. From there, the check-in counter is a one kilometer (3/4 mile) trek.

"If you work at an airport every day, you don't think about these problems the way an outsider would," says Schmidt. "You need to get information to travelers exactly when they need it, not too early, not too late. You also need to build in enough redundancies to make people comfortable, to take them by the hand and guide them through a building that may be totally unfamiliar to them." But not too many redundancies.

"We had 1,500 existing signs to analyze," adds MetaDesign's Michael Boeck. "We discovered more than half were redundant and had little effective purpose. The signage system was absolutely chaotic, with airlines putting their logos everywhere. You'd arrive at the airport and try to figure out which direction were arrivals and departures, and all you'd see were signs for Lufthansa, British Airways and LTU."

MetaDesign developed a structural hierarchy for the new signage system, and created a matrix of information, determined by immediate importance. For instance, Departure signs are shown before Arrivals, since those passengers were likely to be in a greater hurry. Concurrently, it analyzed typefaces, colors and pictogram options. There was no time "to test alternative arrangements, look at different sizes of signs and, most importantly, be more involved in the actual editing of message content and their placement," says Erik Spiekermann. Colors were chosen to contrast Düsseldorf's black type on yellow scheme. Transportation signs feature white type against opal green. "We found a good strong contrast in the green and white that was at the same time soft and calming not harsh like white type on black.

For service information guiding passengers to cares and hotels, MetaDesign used white type on grey. It had originally considered mint for the background, but a 50% screen of green turned out to be too close to existing emergency signs - a concession in part to the gradual process of implementation.

"The new emergency signage was obviously very important," says Brigette Hartwig, the senior designer on the project. "It had to be distinctive in color, orientation and size. In an emergency, it has to be a sign that you can see like no other. The solution we came up with is very visible. The color is more like a yellow-green, not dark green like other standard greens you can buy."

"You're not going to be able to see dark green through black smoke," adds Boeck. "Bright green is immediately visible."

At Düsseldorf, signage has to be legible from a distance of 35 meters (100 feet). In using his Info typeface, Spiekermann says, a major advantage is that it takes about 12% less space than Univers or Helvetica. "That is very important for long German words and often saves one whole new line. We can open the tracking, which improves legibility especially on backlit signs with reversed type, and still save space."

Such advantages are often not recognized by architects, he adds. "For most new airports, it's the architects who create the signage. I'm appalled at how little they understand type," he says. "They usually use the same faces over and over: Helvetica, Univers or lately, Frutiger. It's always something like white on black. But if you use white on a dark background, the type looks thicker, so you have to make it thinner. When you put a white mark on a black light box, it radiates and will blur shapes. If too bold, the inside shape of the letter tends to disappear and an `e' can look like a `c' or an `o.'"

Düsseldorf's typeface also had to work with pictograms that MetaDesign created originally for the Berlin transit authority which, in turn, were based on symbols designed for the Munich Olympics in 1972.

"Twenty-five hundred signs had to be produced and updated every three days or weekly," says Schmidt. "We had to develop a general map with codes for the entire airport. We needed a code for every sign's location so if we got updates, we'd know if the information was correct. The information we were given changed every day. We were designing in anticipation of a permanent system, but we didn't know what the building would be like. One day the client would tell us the whole building would have to be destroyed and replaced. The next day, they'd say it would remain intact."

This summer, the airport's joint owners the German state of North Rhine-Westfalen and the City of Düsseldorf signed off on a new building design. The airport has also approved a new logo by MetaDesign. That corporate identity will be based on the dark green of the airport signage, and, in the coming year, MetaDesign expects to refine the interim system to fit in as a permanent fixture in the new building and design new signage hardware.

While last year's deadly fire instigated the move to new signage, under normal conditions, it is proving beneficial as well. Over the past year, the airport information counter reports a 50% drop in inquiries. Hopefully, its effectiveness in a crisis will never have to be tested. But for the MetaDesign team, working in the shadow of the burned terminal, preparing for such a possibility was always in their mind. "You can't prove people lost their lives because of the signage," says Schmidt. "But obviously if type is more legible, people have a better chance of seeing it in chaotic situations. That was our goal."