Public sector
Wayfinding everyone can follow.
For the council offices, civic centres, libraries and stations the public has to navigate. Accessible, bilingual and certified by default, from one wayfinding specialist.
The brief
The signage is the only briefing most visitors get
Nobody is inducted into a council office. The person at the door might be nineteen or ninety-one, paying motor tax or objecting to a planning application, and they may not read English comfortably. Staff are behind a counter. Everything the visitor needs has to be on the wall, in both official languages.
Public bodies also carry duties private clients don't: the Official Languages Act, Part M and the Disability Act 2005. And they have to be able to show their work when the auditor or the access officer asks.
Wayfinders is a wayfinding specialist. We design, manufacture, install and certify the whole package under one roof, with our own install teams.
Sign the task the visitor came to do, in the words they would use. Nobody arrives looking for Corporate Services.
Dublin City Council. Every department in the building, level by level, Irish first.
Compliance
The statutory floor, built in from the first drawing
We manufacture to these standards by default and certify compliance on completion. Built into the standard it costs nothing extra. Retrofitted across forty buildings, it costs a second rollout.
Official Languages Act
Under S.I. No. 391 of 2008, Irish goes first and is never less prominent or smaller than the English. We size panels for two languages and have the Irish proofed.
Part M and TGD M
Mixed-case lettering, clear wording, the International Symbol of Access on accessible entrances, and tactile lettering and braille on key rooms.
BS 8300 detail
At least 30 points of LRV difference between text and background, matt finishes under office lighting, and tactile signs in the 1.4 to 1.7 metre band.
Disability Act 2005
Section 25 brings public buildings into line with Part M. A building that explains itself makes the access officer's job under section 26 easier.
Escape and safety
Fire safety signage under TGD B with ISO 7010 symbols, designed from the fire certificate and never styled to blend in.
Evidence for audit
Certification and an as-built schedule at handover, so the file still answers the question after the people who signed it off have moved on.
Procurement and delivery
Built for tenders, call-offs and county-wide rollouts
Much of our public-sector work, from Mayo and Donegal to Tipperary, has been won by competitive tender. At county scale the work usually arrives as call-offs drawn down as capital budgets allow, so we write the standard into the technical specification where every later call-off has to read it.
01Asset register
We survey the estate and record what you already own, building by building. Councils that keep the register can price a refresh from a spreadsheet.
02The standard kit
Crest, typeface, colour, bilingual layout and mounting rules fixed once, and written so a fabricator can work from them without ringing anyone.
03Design and approval
Our designers work with your architects' department. Packages average 1.8 design rounds to approval, tracked sign by sign.
04One production run
Signs for several sites made as one batch: the same sheet, printer profile and colour, a match re-ordering never achieves.
05Installation
Our own fitters, working around live public buildings, opening hours and the queue at the counter.
06Certification and governance
Compliance certified on completion, one artwork master, one route for change requests. We have never failed a certification inspection.
Track record
Councils, civic buildings, libraries and Garda stations
Public bodies we deliver for
- Government of Ireland
- An Garda Síochána
- Mayo County Council
- Donegal County Council
- Tipperary County Council
Case study
Donegal County Council
Six public services centres, one compliant system
We won the signage contract for Donegal County Council's six Public Services Centres by tender. The centres are spread across the county, in Letterkenny, Milford, Carndonagh, Dungloe, Lifford and Donegal Town.
We surveyed each building and met the stakeholders in every centre while keeping to the tender guidelines. Beyond clear, effective wayfinding, the brief was compliance with Irish legislation, including the needs of blind and visually impaired visitors through good colour contrast, braille and tactile signage.
Case study
Bettystown Civic Centre
A library and civic hub for Meath County Council
The East Meath Civic Centre in Bettystown, designed by Robin Lee Architects for Meath County Council, serves as both a library and a civic hub. We delivered the complete wayfinding package, from initial planning to final installation.
The system matches the building's architectural clarity: bilingual identification at the entrance, and floor directories that put Irish and English at equal weight, with braille and accessibility pictograms on every level.
Talk to us at the register stage
Specifying a civic office, a library refurbishment or a county-wide programme? Send us the floorplans, the fire drawings or the tender documents. We'll come back with a schedule, a programme and a price, and deliver it through whichever procurement route your project uses.
Talk to our public-sector team