Airport Wayfinding Signage

Airport signage is a design problem that gets harder the more you think about it. Thousands of people from dozens of countries move through a space they have never been in before. They need to find their gate in under 10 minutes without asking anyone. Good airports use a consistent color system, usually yellow for departures, green for exits, white for general directions. Font size stays large enough to read from 50 feet away. Typeface matters too. Most international airports use Frutiger or a custom version of it because the letter shapes are open and distinct. A lowercase 'a' doesn't look like an 'o' when you are speed-reading from a moving walkway. Sign placement follows your natural sightline, always high enough to see over crowds and positioned at decision points where corridors branch.