It seems all is not down and out in the world of information signage. Some new, well new to me, signs at Chipotle, AMC Theaters and Tokyo DisneySea recently caught my attention.

Chipotle Mexican Grill: New Menu Displays

Chipotle recently refreshed their menu displays with new very simple and very easy to read boards.
In addition to being easy to read, I felt like the type looked familiar. So I tried to use the iPhone application version of WhatTheFont [itunes link] but didn’t have much luck. What to do? I may or may not have emailed Chipotle asking what typefaces are being used on the new, borderline magical, signs!



A friendly Chipotle representative responded:

We use a few different Interstate fonts: Interstate Light & Bold and Interstate Light Condensed and Regular Condensed. We also use Gotham Bold on the Food With Integrity Board Headline.

Thanks to the good folks at Chipotle for entertaining my quandary. If you haven’t had a chance to check out their Food With Integrity program, do it now!

AMC Theaters: New LG Information Displays

This is the first display like this that I have seen out in the wild. It isn’t a normal wide screen monitor size, in fact, it seems to be specifically designed for information signage purposes. Here is the LG page for the new displays. I’ll give them a pass for the visible logo because of the improved functionality of this display. It’s the perfect size for placement right over a doorway or vertically on a wall next to a door. AMC needs a little help improving the graphics, but this is a drastic improvement over the old LED matrix signs.

Tokyo DisneySea Raging Spirits Safety Signage

At Tokyo DisneySea, the attraction Raging Spirits features a 360 degree loop. I’m going to guess that for some reason people just couldn’t grasp that concept [perhaps because you can't see the loop from the exterior of the attraction] so this sign is featured prominently. It’s great because it effectively communicates the message, without pulling the guests out of the theme of the Lost River Delta. A low-tech solution to a high-tech high energy ride safety concern! I hope to have a few more posts soon about some of the cool stuff at Tokyo Disneyland.


Take a look at it here:

Have you seen any other cool new signs? Let me know!

Virgin America seems to understand why we all hate airlines and is trying to do something about it. You mean I don’t need to treated as a necessary hassle? Ugh, more paying customers! Yes, Continental I’m looking at you.

Being a new airline with new planes has it’s advantages. All VA planes are equiped with Gogo wireless Internet. Gogo is probably the most amazing discovery since roast penuts. VA’s RED entertainment system is also cool; it provides Dish Network live TV, on demand movies, music and TV, in plane chat. Oh yeah, on demand food service too.

Did I mention the LED lighting that changes color depending on the time of day? Or the Method handsoap and swanky music in the bathroom? What about the power outlets at every seat? Or the ingenuous idea of mounting AVOD hardware under the floorboards then in your foot space?

There is so much that Virgin America gets right that I wish they flew to more places so I wouldn’t have to go back to being treated as cattle.

Virgin America is great but does have some odd problems:

• They don’t have a mobile site. Want to check in on your phone? Good luck with that.
• When you check in for your flight the website may offer an upgrade (for an aditional cost). But just kidding!! The ‘friendly’ rep on the phone said actually NO upgrades were available. To this moment, 10 hours later, the website is still trying to sell upgrades that apparently don’t exist. How evil is that?
• You might sit with Satan children and adults who don’t control them. If it wasn’t for Gogo I might have gone mad. Thanks to these folks, our flight broke the world record for number of flight attendant call button pushes in 6 hours. If you still don’t get it, this same party had a 7 year old in first class, unattended, because she ‘loves the attention.’

This is what was left over from the monster child and family. Yay children?

Have you been to Pei Wei Asian Diner lately? You haven’t?  No bueno. Why don’t you go right now? Why? Because you can check out the new digital menus and [at some locations] Coca-Cola Freestyle vending device!

First off just so you know, Pei Wei was established in 2001 and now has over 150 locations in 15 states. They serve wok-seared contemporary pan-Asian cuisine and are a “faster more casual take of our parent company, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro.”

– Thanks Pei Wei website. If you read my other post on bad displays, you know how I think that the design of a information display shouldn’t distract the users from the information. Pei Wei seems to have the same obsession I have. [yay] As you can see, the new menu displays are seamlessly integrated into the existing containers without any branding or ugly bezel.

The actual content on the displays is also well designed. It is dynamic but easy to read. You can see there is a section on each display that shows some type of video loop but the text areas are crisp.

The brightness level is more than adequate, it is perhaps even too bright in the hip perpetual darkness of Pei Wei Asian Diner. I imagine that the displays can be updated from the mothership in Arizona, ensuring that you will have the same experience at every location.

An extra bonus at the El Toro location was the Coca-Cola Freestyle ‘future-of-vending’ device. This is that Coke machine that lets you choose over 100 different beverages.

I think the Freestyle machine will be Cokes answer to the increasing dislike of HFCS laced drinks. Basically, you place your cup on the device and utilize the touch screen to choose your beverage. Inside the machine there are ultra concentrated syrup containers and a smart little man who keeps track of what drinks you choose. Oh, it has RFID too.

Here is the deal though, it takes way, way, way too long per transaction. I sat (and ignored my boyfriend) watching people use the machine. On average people took 45 to 60 seconds to choose what they wanted. It wasn’t an issue late at night but during the lunch hour…that is way too long!

I think Coca-Cola can fix the problems with Freestyle pretty easily. First, switch the display from resistive to captive touch screen. I found that I had to press on the display multiple times because it didn’t register. I know passive touch screens are cheeper but this machine could save you…pay for the captive touch to improve the functionality (that’s like the iphone).

Second, give customers a RFID tag of their own. Let users go online and choose their favorite drinks to be associated with their tag. When you go to a Freestyle enabled establishment your tag could enable the machine to to dispense your favorite drink, show all your favorites on one screen or randomly select from one of your favorites…depending what you told it to do. How cool would that be? Maybe it doesn’t even need to be RFID, it could just be facial recognition!

How could you tell this face you can’t have Coca-Cola Zero? So anyway, Pei Wei Asian Diner is a champion of good information display and home to the super cool Coca-Cola Freestyle future of vending device of the future! Go check it out!