As shoppers exit stores, heading out into vast lots and garages, the most important thing on their minds is not what treasures they've bought but rather, "Where the @ # $% &! Did we park the car?!" Pentagram has designed graphics for a Midtown Manhattan garage that make sure drivers never forget where their car is.
Owned by Cohen Bros. Realty and managed by Ampco System Parking, the seven-story garage is located at 13-17 East 54th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues and adjacent to an office building at 3 East 54th Street, also owned by Cohen. The owners planned to upgrade the garage and install a new program of environmental graphics.
In the original concept, we wanted to fill the windows of the non-descript structure with the question, "Did You Remember Where We Parked the Car?" City zoning, however, required more traditional signage on the façade, which has been rendered in elegant neon. The interior signage acts as a kind of backseat driver as one moves through the garage. Set in Verlag, the typographic pileup includes instructions for drivers: "Slow and steady wins the race," "Do not stop here, Continue," etc. as well as supergraphics identifying parking levels and elevators.
