Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, NY

Experiential Graphic Designer, Russell Design

The Brooklyn Navy Yard posed a wayfinding puzzle, which I was delighted to help solve. Building numbers were not in a logical order and could not be changed. Most visitors navigate the industrial park in enormous trucks, which impacted the scale, hanging locations, and materials of the design. Lastly a huge amount of information needed to be mapped within a limited amount of space in a comprehensive way.

The site is home to a wide range of tenants, including an electrical plant, furniture designers, stone fabricators, and fish mongers. We worked with the Brooklyn Navy Yard archivist and photographer to capture the products of the diverse businesses and use those photos as backgrounds for panels throughout the site. This visual celebration of the diverse tenant base reinforces the industrial park’s motto, “We used to launch ships. Now we launch businesses.”