Benefits of Adding Branding & Wayfinding Around Campus
Think about the last time you tried to navigate a public commercial building, whether a hospital or other healthcare facility, golf course, shopping plaza, or college campus. Did you feel overwhelmed and confused while looking at a map, or were you late to an appointment or class? Odds are, at some point you felt a bit panicked about taking a wrong turn or finding the best or shortest path to a certain location.
Feeling lost when you’re unaware of your surroundings is no fun, especially as a college student trying to navigate around a campus. One great way to help students, parents, and the public navigate a college campus is to add branding and wayfinding throughout the property. From adding signage and directions to beautiful shrubs that can help ease nerves, to adding branding and wayfinding to any campus, these elements are a great way to help guests and students feel at ease. Continue reading to learn about more benefits of adding branding and wayfinding around campus.
What is Branding & Wayfinding?
A well-designed campus should be both visually welcoming and easy to navigate. Incorporating branded planters and wayfinding elements into the landscape helps students, faculty, staff, and visitors find their destinations while reinforcing the university’s identity. Rather than relying solely on standalone signs, integrated branding and wayfinding create a cohesive campus environment where navigation and branding become part of the overall design.
Custom planters with branded graphics or wayfinding information provide more than decorative appeal; they serve as durable landscape elements that define entrances, guide pedestrian traffic, identify buildings or gathering places, and strengthen campus recognition. By combining planting, branding, and directional signage into a single feature, colleges and universities can create an attractive, functional landscape that enhances the visitor experience while supporting long-term campus planning.
4 Benefits of Adding Branding & Wayfinding
There are many benefits of adding branding and wayfinding to any campus, including, but not limited to, the following:
Stronger Campus Branding
Do you have a ferocious or wild animal as your school mascot? What about a color combination that people see and instantly connect to your school? Whether you want to display your mascot, logo, university colors, or a combination of them throughout campus, adding branding and wayfinding creates stronger campus branding that makes a lasting impression.
Improves Safety
Every campus’s number one concern is student safety, ensuring they travel to and from classes, common areas, mess halls, and their dorm rooms safely. Adding branding and wayfinding to a college campus gives students clear directions on where to exit during an emergency. Branding and wayfinding options for campus safety can include any of the following: campus maps, clear directional signage, safe-zone indicators, digital maps or directory boards, clearly marked exit signs, and more.
Offers Clear Direction
Having wayfinding options like digital maps or illuminated signs can help students and the public find their way more easily around your campus, offering clear direction when they need it most. Having clearly displayed wayfinding signage throughout campus helps students, visitors, faculty, and staff navigate campus more easily, taking the guesswork out of reading a traditional map.
Eases Students’ Nerves
If you’ve ever gone to college or a large public campus for the first time, think about how overwhelming it was to find a certain classroom or even your dorm room. You likely felt a sense of unease as you first set foot on campus, let alone the first time you navigated it without help from your family or friends. Adding branding and wayfinding to a campus eases students’ nerves, especially when it’s meant to offer clear direction. Students feel more at ease when they can find their way around campus, helping them adjust to this big change a bit more comfortably.
According to a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information and the National Library of Medicine, exposure to nature significantly improves brain activity, cognitive function, mental health, and offers physical benefits such as improved blood pressure, physical activity, and sleep. Therefore, adding beautiful planters with lush blooms and vibrant flowers in conjunction with branding and wayfinding can also help ease their nerves and improve their experience, similar to a comforting health facility healing garden that provides peace and comfort to visitors, employees, and patients.
PolyMade’s Branding and Wayfinding Capabilities/Applications
PolyMade offers multiple ways to incorporate branding and directional messaging directly into custom commercial planters. Permanent engraved logos create a clean, professional appearance by integrating your organization’s identity into the planter itself, resulting in a durable, low-maintenance solution that won’t fade or crack over time.
Whether your goal is to strengthen brand identity or improve navigation, custom branding and wayfinding features can serve a variety of purposes. PolyMade solutions are commonly used for:
Reinforcing corporate and institutional branding
Directing visitors, students, faculty, and staff throughout campus
Enhancing event venues and public gathering spaces
Identifying entrances, buildings, and other key locations
Memorials, donor recognition displays, and commemorative installations
No matter the application, PolyMade can help design a custom branding and wayfinding solution that complements your landscape while making your property more welcoming, recognizable, and easier to navigate.
Add Branding and Wayfinding to Your Campus with PolyMade
Every PolyMade commercial planter, branding, and wayfinding application is custom-built to meet each client’s vision, with virtually unlimited options for shapes, sizes, and colors. Designed for efficient shipping and straightforward installation, our planters make it easy to incorporate branding and wayfinding features that elevate your campus’ aesthetic.
From the initial consultation through final installation, our experienced team works alongside you every step of the way. We transform your ideas into durable, visually impactful solutions tailored to your project goals. Whether you're creating commemorative installations, memorials, donor recognition displays, or branded features that strengthen corporate or institutional identity, we fabricate lightweight planters in virtually any design to simplify handling and installation.
Connect with our team to discover how PolyMade's custom branding and wayfinding solutions can enhance your landscape, streamline installation, and create an attractive, welcoming environment for visitors.
