For FSB, perfectly co-ordinated hardware schemes have never been confined to lever handles. Doors (and windows) have always been treated as part of an architectural whole geared towards rendering spaces functionally usable.
For design purposes, entrances and exits entail more than just the operation of doors, consideration also having to be given to how users find their way around the building beforehand. “Where’s the loo?”, “How do I find my way out?”, “What’s behind this door?”. These are all questions a well-conceived directional signage system is well-disposed to answer. Thus it is only logical that FSB should not focus exclusively on hardware; indeed, with the appearance of its new 2008|09 Manual the issue of finding one’s way round a space (and to the door) has become central.
Hardware and wayfinding system in one.
Order code 4059 covers a system of information signs that blend in seamlessly with all products in the FSB range and provide the ideal solution for all conceivable wayfinding problems. Use is made of the best-established pictogram system on the market, one that is now something of a cultural asset in the sphere of visual communication. Originally devised as signage for the Munich Olympic Games and Frankfurt Airport by graphic artist Otl Aicher, it has lost none of its exemplary impact and is still utterly contemporary more than 35 years on. FSB engraves, lasers or tampon-prints these pictograms onto aluminium or stainless steel signplates serving to point the way to doors, along corridors or on the outside of a building.
The quality of any system of pictograms is primarily defined by its simplicity and exhaustiveness. Otl Aicher’s pictograms have no truck with fads and trends, having recourse to a clear and unequivocal visual language instead. The ongoing addition of new pictograms reflects technical innovations as well as the convergence of international markets. The spectrum of over 400 signs covers virtually every application in the public and commercial spheres. All pictograms draw on a uniform, copyrighted formal vocabulary (copyright 1976 by ERCO), thus allowing for random permutations within the system.