Signage

About this pattern

Signage of all kinds, physical and digital provides an important orienting and way finding role in public life, thus supporting ways of commoning. Signage can be a temporary measure to provide an induction into the careful and appropriate use of a place, or to tell stories in order to enrich the experience of a place. Signs can also work in the other way as forms of punitive resistance to commoning, such as declaring private zones in an otherwise open /continuous environment, amplifying risks and dangers, or rendering place-based social practices illegal, such as congregating, fishing, walking, picnicking, climbing, camping and bird feeding.

Pattern Conditions

Enablers

• City of Sydney regulations make mixed provisions that can support commoning for a short-term period. “While commercial bill posters are illegal, signage posted by community members to advertise garage sales, find missing pets or to promote local fetes are not in breach of these laws.” However, there is a one-week limit.

Constraints

• State Environmental Planning Policy regulates signage and provides time-limited consents.
• Risk management protocols favour signs that amplify risks and deter use.
• Signage can be visually unappealing and can seem to stand in for poor design.
• Signage can be easy to ignore.
• Physical signage can disrupt airflow and be a hazard in high wind.

Commoning Concerns

Access: Those who can see and understand the sign.

Use: Resident community, visitors.

Benefit: Resident community, visitors, potentially animals and habitats, distributions of material resources .

Care: Depending on the nature of the sign, care could fall to Local Government Authority, resident community or both.

Responsibility: All users, Local Government Authority.

Ownership: Depending on the nature of the sign, owners could be Local Government Authority, resident community or both.

A commoning concern is digital accessibility to support online signage through digital maps, apps and wayfinding tools.

The language and tone of voice with which a sign speaks can have an impact on accessibility. Signage is a limited measure that needs to be supported by social evidence  – for example people using a space quietly will be more influential than a sign saying ‘quiet zone’; equally a ‘no swimming’ sign will be overridden by people swimming in a water fountain. This raises a question regarding signs: not what agency does the sign have, but rather when does a sign have agency?