Keith has good signage experience, so hopefully he'll help out.

Choosing a typeface:
1) Does the building need to mind what fonts have been used on the rest of the campus?
2) What major(s) does the building house?

hhp

The University of reading recently licensed Keith's Arrival type for its signage, indicating that at least one academic institution (and one with a serious typography department) found it appropriate.

I really don't have much experience designing sign systems themselves. I've only done one signage project ever, and it was only temporary.

As far as typefaces go, the requirements for internal signage for an academic environment would be quite different form say an airport or a highway. For room labels, I dare say, would not be that much different than designing for print, say a poster. But for larger signs, those that would be read from a fair distance, as a rule, would need more space between letters than for print. What looks perfectly alright close up would appear much tighter when seen from a distance, hampering legibility greatly. Counters generally have to be large and open, again for legibility reasons. I'm afraid I don't have figures to support my arguments, or any hard and fast rules in terms of scale and how much the spacing should be. The best bit of advice I could give would be: always test at actual size. Do test prints, hang them up in the hallways, step back and see how well they read. That's essential.

For a much more empricial approach, you should contact James Montalbano, who designed Clearview for US highways. He would be a much more appropriate person to ask for advice. He gave the most fascinating presentation at TypeCon. Are you around, James?

Johnathan, maybe you would be interested in looking at Paul Mijksenaar's work? http://www.mijksenaar.com/index2.html

Getting to develop a comprehensive signage system is still one of my big ambitions as a designer.

It doesn't focus on typography, but here's an interesting site about signage system design.

http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/ravi/signage/

Paul

To answer Hrant's questions:

No, I don't need to respect any previous signage, because until now it's all been very inconsistent and not very good. There is, however, a new trademark: which uses ITC New Baskerville and a bit of another face. The signage may or may not incorporate this logo. This is a Bible college, and so all the majors at this point are Biblical studies and training for pastors and that sort of thing. Therefore I'd like a look which conveys an idea of ancient sacred dignity or something like that.

Hmmm, it's tough to avoid getting too clich�/literal here...

All I can think of is that the x-height might be a tad smaller than pure functionality might dictate.

hhp

Although it is the 'corporate' face for the college, I don't think Baskerville would be an appropriate choice for a signage system. The contrast is too high and the type too feeble to function well as a signage type.

The 'corporate' face for the Vancouver Public Library system is Didot, and, believe it or not, that's what they use for all their architectural lettering and signage across the system! It's bloody hard to read! The hairlines almost disappear!

It sure would be nice to use something that subtly convey 'ancient sacred dignity' in one way or another, but I feel that it need not be a serif type. Have you seen the new Anglican service books? They use Gill Sans in black and red they they look very diginified and religious. Yet modern. It's a great design, IMHO.

I have a semi-sans that might work well for this project, but unfortunitely it hasn't been produced yet :-P

Hey, has anybody made a low-contrast sans to match Baskerville? Maybe Storm?
There's stuff like that for Trajan.

hhp

Yes, Hrant. John Sans by Storm. It's a really interesting type � a related sans for Baskerville! Storm's John Baskerville is really good too � maybe even the best cut of Baskerville around?

I was thinking similarly: I should focus on designing an effective and dignified system without attempting to directly reference old-fashioned religious typography.

Yes, Jonathan, as long as it's not cold, clinical and impersonal. Afterall, your signs would contribute to the atmosphere of the place.

As long as I don't see another sign set in Helvetica, I'll be happy :-)