Collaboration with Step Up to Art Lab + City of Cincinnati 

Signage + Wayfinding


The Step Up to Art project’s origin began in 2019, when the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning(DAAP)’s grantcellerator program paired Kate Bonansinga, a professor and director of DAAP’s School of Art, with Muhammad Rahman, an assistant professor of design, to research and develop a community enrichment program. The signage and wayfinding project has been recognized with the highest Honor catagory in the prestigious ‘Cincinnati Design Awards’ 27th event (CDA27).


Winning project: https://lnkd.in/esqD6rrR 
Date of Completion: September, 2023    Project Cost: $26,300

External Collaboration: City of Cincinnati, DOTE, Office of Architecture and Urban Design, Graphics Section; Step Up to Art Lab — University of Cincinnati; Spring In Our Steps; Holthaus Lackner Signs;

News Articles:




We Collaborated with Joell Angel-Chumbley, Supervising Graphic Designer in the Department of Transportation Engineering (DOTE), City of Cincinnati, in designing the signage system for the Step Up to Art project which integrated QR Codes, Navigation maps and highlights the unique collaboration among stakeholders and the community. It also includes field surveys, measurements, budget-refinements, evidence-based research and finalization of the location of the signages. The project harnessed community input and investment in the creation of a public art and wayfinding signage network on the Ohio Avenue
Steps between Mount Auburn and Clifton Heights.

We have curated a signage standard that will provide a consistent information layer, while allowing artistic contents. The stairways with signs will become both estinations and nodes of a city-wide network of ‘pedestrian-transportation-system-as-art-experience’ with efficient connections between walking routes and neighborhoods. The newly envisioned signage system has been strategically placed to provide clear and intuitive directions, ensuring that everyone can easily navigate through the neighborhoods. With clear directions for pedestrians alike, urbanite pedestrian eventually find the experiential and safest routes to
their destinations.

   UC News: