Client: North Coast Regional Botanic Garden
Date: 2025 to current
Services: Sign planning • Wayfinding strategy • Mapping • Interpretive planning • Content development • Graphic design • Production coordination
Project: A staged program of wayfinding and interpretive signage that is replacing older infrastructure while creating a consistent visitor experience.
Finding your way. Discovering the garden.
The North Coast Regional Botanic Garden is a place of winding rainforest paths, themed plant collections and quiet spaces that reward exploration. As the garden expanded over time, so too did its signage. New signs were added as needed, creating a mix of styles, materials and information that no longer worked together as a unified visitor system.
TIDC was engaged to develop a long-term signage strategy that would improve both orientation and interpretation. The project began with a comprehensive review of how visitors arrive, move through the garden and make decisions at key locations. From this understanding, a coordinated family of signs was developed to help people navigate confidently while complementing the character of the landscape.
The project extends well beyond directional signage. Alongside maps and wayfinding, a growing suite of interpretive signs is revealing the stories behind the garden’s diverse plant collections, landscapes and living environments. Rather than treating navigation and interpretation as separate experiences, the project brings them together within a single visual language that will continue to evolve as new stages are delivered.
A system designed for a growing garden
Replacing individual signs would not have solved the underlying problem. The challenge was to create a flexible system that could be implemented over many years while maintaining consistency across the entire garden.
Wayfinding was developed from the visitor’s perspective, identifying where people arrive, where they pause to make decisions and what information they need at each point in their journey. Directional signs, orientation maps and location markers work together as a connected family, helping visitors move confidently through the garden while sitting comfortably within the surrounding landscape.
More than directions
A successful visit is about more than finding the next path. It is also about understanding the place.
As the project progresses, interpretive signage is adding another layer to the visitor experience by introducing the garden’s plants, collections and stories. Each new sign builds on the same design system established through the wayfinding strategy, creating a seamless experience from arrival through to exploration. The staged approach allows the garden to continue expanding its interpretation while maintaining a coherent and recognisable identity across the site.
Continue Exploring
