Kindergarten Marktstrasse – Signaletik

Description

Reggio’s pedagogue, Loris Malaguzzi, said: “A child is made of a hundred, a child has a hundred languages, a hundred hands, a hundred thoughts, a hundred ways to think, play, speak.” Our signage system uses the (hundred) worlds of children as its guiding principle: the children came up with their own designs. Their drawings and writings became the key players of the signage system. With child-like ease the children describe their place, their rooms and their fantasies.

Statement of the jury

With a project like this, the designer is skating on thin ice – but in this case it worked! In this fantastic work, the designers did not make the mistake of creating something that cannot be created by adults, as the imitation of a childlike, naive style always remains a forced replica. Instead, the children were permitted to create their designs themselves, and subsequently these were compiled to produce an inherently logical and smoothly functioning guidance system. The result is a fantastic work with wonderfully light typography and graphics combined with the beguiling naturalness and practicality that only children possess. Each element is different, yet speaks the same language – and does so with surprising perspicuity and clarity. Extremely impressive and very unorthodox.