Four colours dominate Schiphol's new signs.

A new signage concept is being put in place at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with four thousand fresh new signs providing clear route directions to airport visitors. The new concept, designed with uniformity and clarity in mind, arose from the need to provide clearer directions to all airport facilities as well as the requirement to use only the colour green to highlight all emergency exits. Eighty percent of the signs have already been replaced with all green emergency exit signage scheduled for completion by April 2002. The airport has invested 3.7 million euros in the project.

New Look Signage Paves the Way at Schiphol

Colour Concept
Green
The entire airport will gain highly visual, green emergency exit signs enhanced with a new international emergency exit pictogram directing passengers among others to passenger bridges and aircraft stands in the event of an emergency.

Yellow
Prominent yellow signs with black lettering continue to refer passengers to the piers, gates and transfer desks.

Grey
Dark-grey signs with yellow lettering indicate airport facilities, such as banks, the communication centre, hotels, shower and toilet facilities. Dark grey is the Schiphol Group corporate colour.

Light grey has been continued for information signage, such as flight Information and instructions, e.g. Â'No EntryÂ' signs.

Blue
Blue signs with white lettering highlight restaurant and shopping outlets. Blue reflects the logo colour of the Â'See Buy FlyÂ' shopping centre (after Passport Control).

Texts
The signs are visually clearer, have less text and use a larger typeface to enhance readability. The airport has opted to carry mainly English language signage in all transfer areas (after Passport Control), since the vast majority of visitors there are international passengers. Where English wording is not sufficiently clear to Dutch nationals, Dutch wording has been used in addition to English. Signs at strategic locations inside the airport now also indicate the average time it takes to walk to a gate to remind passengers of the time remaining for boarding.

New Names
A number of areas have also adopted new names, for example the departure lounges, now called South, Central and West have been renamed Lounges 1, 2, and 3 in line with the names of Arrival and Departure Halls 1, 2 and 3. The corridor between Piers E and F has been named Holland Boulevard reflecting Dutch heritage in the Delft Blue wall. All first and business class lounges are now called Airline Lounges.

(source: Schiphol Groep)

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