RETURN TO CHILDHOOD (2023)
WAYFINDING SIGNAGE FOR ELIZABETH FARM
The brief for this project was to design a wayfinding experience to assist Museums of History NSW in sharing the stories of Elizabeth Farm; Australia’s oldest colonial homestead. After exploring the site, I realised there was a fascinating history left partially untold about the Macarthur children that lived and grew up there.
Our memories of our childhood homes often have a distortion to them, simply because our perspective was zoomed in as a small child. I thought about how a child's height may allow them to navigate or remember spaces with more curiosity and awe than adults. This developed into a concept where I played with low, discrete signage placement throughout the property, to encourage adults to come down to a child’s eye level and experience the home in a more imaginative way. Each sign has a short speculative quote about what childhood experiences may have been shared in each location. I also designed a set of corresponding cards, with real stories and anecdotes for each room. With these, visitors could match the card to the sign using its corresponding room shape, then at the end of their visit, they could use the back side of the cards to arrange a complete floor plan of the property.
