StretchLearn Course

Design signs that people can actually read, follow, and that a shop can actually build.

From legibility math to ADA tactile copy to mounting details — the full beginner path to wayfinding and sign design.

Beginner9 hrSelf PacedRegistered

Course Overview

What this course is designed to develop

Signage Design teaches you to plan and draw a coherent sign family for a real building or campus, from exterior monument signs to interior room IDs. You will work through the legibility math that determines letter height, the ADA 2010 Standards that govern tactile and visual signs, and the substrate, finish, and mounting decisions that make a design buildable. By the end you can hand a fabricator a message schedule, sign-type drawings, and a mounting spec they can quote and install.

Learning Outcomes

What the learner should be able to understand, build, or execute.

Classify a project's signs into a four-tier wayfinding hierarchy (identification, directional, informational, regulatory)

Calculate minimum letter height from viewing distance using the 1-inch-per-25-feet and 30x rules

Apply the ADA 2010 Standards sections 703.2 to 703.5 for tactile copy, Grade 2 Braille, mounting height, and visual character contrast

Specify substrates, finishes, and mounting methods appropriate to interior versus exterior exposure

Build a message schedule and sign location plan that ties every sign to a coded sign type

Produce a fabrication-ready sign-type drawing with dimensions, colours, materials, and a mounting detail

Curriculum Preview

Inside the curriculum: a structured path from fundamentals to execution.

Preview the course structure, see how the modules build on one another, and understand the path this program is designed to take you through.

Module 1

Module 1: Wayfinding Foundations and the Sign Family

Understand what wayfinding actually solves, how signs are classified, and how a building's circulation drives a coordinated sign system.

3 lessons

What Wayfinding Is and the Four Sign TypesContent · 45 min

Preview Enabled

Reading a Building: Circulation and Decision PointsContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Building the Sign-Type Kit and Naming SystemContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 2

Module 2: Legibility, Type, and Colour at Distance

Apply the math and visual rules that make signs readable at the speed and distance people encounter them.

3 lessons

Letter Height and Viewing Distance MathContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Typeface, Spacing, and Visual HierarchyContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Colour, Contrast, and Materials LegibilityContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 3

Module 3: Accessibility and ADA Compliance

Meet the legal accessibility requirements that govern tactile signs, Braille, mounting height, and pictograms.

3 lessons

The ADA Standards and Which Signs They GovernContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Tactile Copy, Braille, and PictogramsContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Mounting Height, Location, and Visual CharactersContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 4

Module 4: Materials, Fabrication, and the Spec Package

Translate a design into substrates, finishes, mounting details, and the document set a fabricator builds from.

3 lessons

Substrates and Finishes for Interior and ExteriorContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Mounting Methods and the Spec SheetContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Assembling the Package and Working with FabricatorsContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Built for Application

A complete learning path, not a one-off inspiration hit.

This program is designed around progression: focused lessons, structured modules, applied resources, assessments, and a course rhythm that turns information into usable capability.

wayfindingsignageADA complianceenvironmental graphic designlegibilitysign fabricationmounting specstypography