USS Midway Museum
Decision Point Signage
The signs and associated developmental materials shown below were derived from the original, more detailed isometric artwork I had developed for the new 2018 Tour Map.
As covered in the Midway Tour Map project, management wanted to simplify and remove detail from the map itself. With an excellent team of highly trained Midway Docents, the museum felt that Docent/Visitor interactions should be used to complement the map.
After the new tour map was in use, some minor changes were proposed, as well as a series of signs at what were deemed "Decision Points". In most cases, these were loops through sections of the ship (some not on the 3 decks shown on the map) that had a defined entry and exit point - which are occasionally at the same location.
These signs provide more detailed map diagrams than the Tour Map, but are limited to the loop. Below are my artwork as used for the "Island Tour", and a photo of the sign below it. Albert Munoz designed the sign layout and inserted the "tour highlight" images.
Artwork for Island Tour sign as delivered
Finished Island Tour sign at entrance to guided tour queue.
The thumbnails below can be enlarged to see other Decision Point signs, and in some cases, their placement within the ship. Note that all but the last sign, "Forward Mess Deck" depict loop areas that are on decks below the lowest deck shown on the printed Tour Map. The "Midway Decks" overview box in the upper-left area of each sign shows only the decks depicted on the map and provides location information relative to the entire ship.
All of the Decision Point signs were derived from the isometric drawings developed for the map, and thus reflect the same viewpoint angle - from the right-rear corner of the ship. The individual "loop map" images retain this orientation. But due to sign placement, their orientations often don't align with the viewers' perspective (as do "Emergency Exit" signs).
Thus I created a demonstration showing how simplified 3-D models in SketchUp, created from the 2-D isometric drawings, could be easily repositioned in a parallel or perspective view to any orientation. Below are the SketchUp model and two sign variants. The sign on the left maintains the same basic conventions, but the right sign offers the visitor a view of the loop that is more aligned with their actual perspective from the sign's location.
