Upcoming Webinar
SRF Lunch & Learn | Leave the Lights On
Register for the “Leave the Lights On” Webinar
Description: An increasing number of organizations and cities want to limit sign lighting. Whether it’s lower lighting levels, imposing curfews or banning certain kinds of illuminated signs, these regulations pose an existential threat to the sign industry. What can sign companies do to influence local officials so that they leave the (sign) lights on, allowing customers to continue to buy and use illuminated signs?
Attendees will learn from ISA’s Advocacy team who wants to restrict sign lighting, what to do when cities propose sign lighting restrictions, and how to educate local officials and customers about the importance of effectively illuminated signs and how to make sure they can be seen at night.
Speaker: David Hickey, ISA Vice President, Advocacy
Price: $35
Registration includes a complimentary copy of the SRF report, Night-time Brightness Level Recommendations for On-Premise Electronic Message Centers (EMCs), a $29.99 value.
Recorded Webinars
SRF Presents: Content-Neutral Sign Codes After Reed and Austin
Description: Is your community's sign ordinance content-neutral enough to survive scrutiny by a federal court? Estimates are that at least half the local jurisdictions in the United States still have yet to be fully compliant with the landmark Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015) U.S. Supreme Court decision, and are vulnerable to legal challenges and financial penalties. Learn how the federal courts have recently been interpreting Reed, including last year's Austin v. Reagan decision from the U.S. Supreme Court involving billboards and digital signs, and what it means for your community's sign code. You’ll also learn various approaches when regulating murals, political signs and other challenges in trying to achieve content-neutral sign codes.
Speakers: Susan L. Trevarthen, JD, FAICP, Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, P.L.; Mark White, Esq., AICP, White & Smith, LLC; James Carpentier, International Sign Association
SRF Presents: Trail Sign Manual Webinar – Design Perspective
Description: Parks and Trails are great venues for experimentation. This lecture profiles a number of these innovative approaches including digital technology, illumination, durable materials and street furniture. The lecture also covers how designers create comprehensive and consistent systems built to stand the test of time.
Speakers: Craig Berger, Fashion Institute of Technology; Mark Vevle, Exit Design; and Virginia Gehshan, Cloud Gehshan Design
SRF Presents: Trail Sign Manual Webinar – History Perspective
Description: The History of Park and Trail Wayfinding stretches back over 200 years, but in the last 20 years diverse and exciting wayfinding programs began to proliferate. This lecture covers both the expansive and recent history through the selection of 25 projects from before 2000 and 25 projects from the last two decades.
Speakers: Craig Berger, Fashion Institute of Technology; India Adolfsson, T-Squared Design Inc.; Keith Helmetag, C&G Partners
SRF Presents: Trail Sign Manual Webinar – Planning Perspective
Park and Trail Wayfinding is a unique combination of institutional branding, identity development, placemaking and interpretation. This lecture will discuss the trends in trail wayfinding as well as the stakeholder and planning methodologies that lead to successful programs.
Speakers: Craig Berger, Fashion Institute of Technology; India Adolfsson, T-Squared Design Inc.; Jeff Frank, Corbin Design; Moira O’Polka, Corbin Design; Shelley Steele, Corbin Design; Gail Wittwer-Laird, Starr Whitehouse; Paul Dudley, ID Signsystem
SRF Presents: Signs of Equity
This session will analyze these two critically different types of local retail signage (“Old School” and “New School”) to help planners and local officials examine how sign regulations may contribute to inequity and exclusions. It will incorporate ethnographic observation, interviews and storefront texts from Brooklyn, New York, to discover signage models and methods that ensure equity, diversity and inclusion.
Presenters on this webinar include authors of “What the Signs Say,” Edward Snajdr, John Jay College, CUNY, and Shonna Trinch, John Jay College, CUNY, James Carpentier, ISA, Sapna Budev, SRF, and Dawn Jourdan, University of Maryland.
SRF Presents: Saving Historic & Vintage Signs – Best Practices Regulating These Community Icons
Historic and vintage signs can rekindle fond memories of the past, transporting us to a time and place when nearly all businesses were locally-owned shops on Main Street, USA. Today, these signs represent a one-of-a-kind piece of nostalgia and art, as vivid as a neon landmark.
In this interactive webinar you will learn how a variety of jurisdictions regulate and promote the restoration of these iconic community signs. In addition, you will learn how historic signs can promote tourism and enhance economic development. You will also receive the Sign Research Foundation’s new resource on Saving Historic & Vintage Signs, which provides best practices from the communities featured in the presentation.
Speakers include Dan Bursuck, AICP planner, City of Tucson AZ; Anthony Riederer, AICP, Senior Design and Preservation Planner for Clackamas County OR, and James Carpentier, AICP, Director of Local & State Government Affairs, International Sign Association
SRF Presents: Smart Cities, Smarter Signage | Regulating Tomorrow’s Tech
The design and development of new sign types accompanying the evolution of the “smart city” creates new challenges for communities to ensure regulatory and privacy concerns are proactively addressed. Join this session to better understand the development of smart cities across the globe and to appreciate the importance of citizen participation and social equity in developing policies which will govern technologies currently being integrated and in development.
The presenters, Deacon Wardlow and Dawn Jourdan, esq., Ph.D., are co-authors of the recently published report, Smart Signage and Smart Cities: Regulating New Tech. They have chronicled emerging technologies that will shape signage and wayfinding in the near future and provide guidance to the approach cities should take to ready themselves for the role of signs in the future. Their presentation includes guidance for communities integrating smart technologies with their sign ordinances.
SRF Presents: Urban Wayfinding Planning and Implementation Manual Webinars
The Sign Research Foundation (SRF) just released a newly updated Urban Wayfinding Planning and Implementation Manual. This comprehensive guide to urban wayfinding, from planning to implementation, offers tips on financing, design, regulatory issues and maintenance. Each of the chapters now includes the latest data and contains a “New Trends” section with updates from the past seven years.
Part 1: Planning – Webinar Recording
This first webinar in the series delves into important aspects of successful wayfinding programs, including strong planner and public official leadership. Topics include financing, stakeholder management and regulatory management. The lecture was led by design and administrative professionals (Craig Berger, FIT and Craig Berger Management Consulting; John Bosio, Principal at Merje; George Lim, Principal Partner/Creative Director Tangram Design) and also included a discussion on proactive techniques for project leadership.
Part 2: Design – Webinar Recording
This second webinar in the series focused on the design elements and trends represented in the manual and was tailored for designers. Cities and Regions are undertaking large structural changes with short term crisis reinforcing long term economic and social trends. A few leading trends impacting wayfinding include the expansion of trail and regional park projects, digital technologies and multi-modal expansion. The lecture was led by design and administrative professionals (Keith Helmetag, C&G Partners; Adrian Bell, Applied Wayfinding).
Part 3: Fabrication – Webinar Recording
This webinar focused on the material and fabrication process represented in the manual and was tailored for fabricators. Signs in outdoor environments need to be tough to withstand the physical environment and everyday wear and tear. This program encompassed the material, fabrication and maintenance approaches that can extend the life of a sign and make it easier to change and update.
Part 4: Case Study – Webinar Recording
This webinar is an all-encompassing overview of how an urban wayfinding project comes to fruition from start to finish and how each of the players is involved in that success. Planners, designers, and fabricators will all find relevant information to their job functions in this session.
