Hida-Furukawa is a small town surrounded by mountains in northern Gifu Prefecture. Ryotaro Shiba, a famous novelist, once wrote about the city as “astonishingly elegant and traditional.” Generations later, the town still maintains the same atmosphere. In this project, we decided to reflect the pride and will that the people in Furukawa have for their city in signage to welcome the visitors; therefore, from the early stage, we learned about the meanings of designs and case studies together with the city workers and the citizens to seek the most suitable design for this region. Specifically, we strived to find the best font and meticulous typography which match into the environment while welcoming and guiding the visitors with a calm Hida dialect. We also developed arrows and pictograms which have appropriate moods for the streets. The base part of the signage was created after exchanging views with the citizens and layers of testing such that the size and proportion, as well as the color, blend well with the surroundings, and the separatable structure comes in handy against heavy snow and at the time of festive events.

→GK Graphics website