梁赞旅游导览丨俄罗斯梁赞丨未明确提及公司,团队成员有Elizaveta Petrova等

Ryazan tourist wayfinding

In 2023, the city administration of Ryazan approached us with a request to create wayfinding system of the historical center from scratch: the city won a state grant aimed at increasing tourist attractiveness. Wayfinding is an important part of the urban environment, especially for a tourist coming to Ryazan for the first time.

Many visitors to the city visit Ryazan in one day to see the Kremlin, but don't make it to other iconic landmarks.

We took on the challenge and an inspired team of strategist, creative director and art director traveled to Ryazan to make our own impression of the city and immerse ourselves in the project.

We saw the city on our own, walked around it with professional tour guides and eventually gathered enough information to prepare a tourist CJM.

We found Ryazan to be an eclectic city: historic wooden buildings neighboring with Soviet architecture, 17th century churches with a vivid representative of “kaprom” – the “egg house”, and the Ryazan Kremlin with the Airborne Troops Museum. It was important to organically fit tourist wayfinding into the urban environment without disturbing the authentic views.

At the base of the navigation pillars we used warm tinted concrete with a branded pattern inspired by the traditional Ryazan “money” pattern. The openwork and a certain “stencil-like” nature of the pattern refers to the saw-cut carving that is often found on wooden platbands. Thanks to the combination of rough texture and elegant pattern, the steles look organic both among historical stone buildings and next to wooden structures.

The carved elements also transitioned into graphics – in the style of icons and illustrations. At all stages of the project, the client was very involved in the process and helped to find the most appropriate images for the city. For example, he suggested lighting up the image of a water tower, which is dear to the hearts of Ryazan citizens, with a separate pictogram.

We drew a map of the historical center from scratch for the navigation pillars. Significant landmarks are visible from afar due to their size and bright red color. The rich red color in the design was created as a reference to cinnabar, a thick red paint for painting icons.

To make the map more interesting to look at, we added details. There are boats floating on the river, parachutes flying over the Airborne Forces Museum, and a suspicious dog following tourists around the map.

The main map is very detailed and shows a distance of about 5 minutes on foot. To make it easier for the tourist to get an overall impression of the location of the sights, we put a mini-map at the bottom of the pillars. It is very schematic, but it allows you to quickly orient yourself in the space.

The system is designed to accompany the tourist all the way to the end point. Pillars with maps provide general orientation, narrow pillars and fingerposts confirm the direction, and information boards and signs tell you more about the site.

A new character – Ryazan knyaz – has appeared on pillars with maps. He is integrated into the wayfinding system and prompts tourists to non-standard places, where to go and how to build a route around the city. Thanks to knyaz it was possible to soften the tone of voice of the wayfinding and make it friendlier. Knyaz has many images: he can be a photographer, an actor and even a paratrooper.

Tourists are already using our navigation and discovering a lot of new things.To quote Irina Purtova, art director of the project: “What a joy it is to work with a client who is involved in the process! It is incredibly valuable and helps us to achieve the best possible result."

Project team

Elizaveta Petrova, Producer

Egor Myznik, Creative director and partner

Ekaterina Avteykina, Senior strategist

Oleg Ahn, Content producer

Irina Purtova, Art director

Evgenia Khludentsova, Art director

Anna Volkova, Motion designer

Sergey Chikin, Secret advisor for icons