These two coreflute signs directed spectators at the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic Games: the first sign marked routes to the Softball Centre and Baseball Centre, and the second sign identified Spectator Plaza - a central location at each Games venue that provided public amenities, including toilets, first aid services, merchandise outlets, food outlets and telephones. Made by Concept POP & Displays at the Central Coast and designed by Dot Dash of Brisbane, these two signs are typical of the Games signage that combined a yellow surface, blue font and directional icons.

Ranging from signage and maps to flags and banners, wayfinding devices were essential for guiding the vast crowds of people in Sydney during the Games. Many built environments, including competition venues, the Main Press Centre, the Athletes' Village, Media Village, transport interchanges and civic spaces, featured distinctive elements of the Sydney 2000 wayfinding system. Underlying the system, a consistent set of colours, symbols, typography, language and materials coordinated wayfinding devices and standardised their interpretation. (Recurring features included yellow grounds, blue typefaces, blue and white pictograms and aluminium frames.)

From 1998 onwards, Brisbane company, Dot Dash, worked in concert with the Sydney 2000 Image Department to develop signage complimentary to the Games' Kit of Parts - the formal set of colours, motifs, typefaces and other visual elements that would brand the Games. These characteristics, and most notably the use of Sydney yellow, Sydney aqua and the Helvetica typeface, would tie the wayfinding devices to the Games' broader visual theme.

Experienced in developing wayfinding devices, Dot Dash decided to adopt a fresh and broad approach for its work on the Sydney 2000 Games. Its new vision would include the standard maps, banners and signage as well as some atypical tools that would help to situate spectators at the Games. These would encompass media backdrops, fields of play, sports equipment, ground graphics and 30 major entry towers (9-metre, timber structures that resembled lifesavers' chairs and served as entrances, watchtowers, signposts, information bases and night-time beacons).

By September 2000, Dot Dash had created 47,000 signs, 9,000 banners, 4,500 flags, 19,500 metres of corral and fascia treatments, 4,500 square-metres of ground graphics, 44,000 metres of fence fabric, 2,000 square metres of printed decals, 50 media backdrops, 30 major entry towers, 300 sports equipment treatments and around 200 custom-built installations. More broadly, it had developed wayfinding strategies; designed signage and banners (both for competition and non-competition venues); and had drafted maps of venues and key sites around Sydney. These tools would contribute to a uniform image of Sydney and the Olympic Games, and would help to guide athletes, spectators, staff, volunteers and residents through Sydney.

This coreflute sign, 'Ticket Sales', was designed by Brisbane company, Dot Dash, in around 1999. Its design was typical of most Games signage that combined a yellow surface, blue font and directional icons.

From early 2000 to September 2000, the Central Coast company, Concept POP & Displays, made this and most other coreflute signage for the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company undertook similar work eighteen years earlier when it manufactured signage for the Brisbane Commonwealth Games.

These two coreflute signs directed spectators at the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic Games: the first sign marked routes to the Softball Centre and Baseball Centre, and the second sign identified Spectator Plaza - a central location at each Games venue that provided public amenities, including toilets, first aid services, merchandise outlets, food outlets and telephones.

Made for and owned by the Olympic Coordination Authority/Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, and donated to the Powerhouse Museum after use in the Games.

Signs (2), 'Softball Centre, Baseball Centre', 'Spectator Plaza', coreflute, Olympic Games, Sydney, 2000, designed by Dot Dash, Brisbane c.1999, made by Concept POP & Displays, Central Coast, 2000

Signs, 2, coreflute wayfinding signs for the softball and baseball centres and for the spectator plaza. Both signs are yellow with blue text. Both of the signs feature pictograms as well as text. There are two pictograms on the Softball / Baseball centre sign and six pictograms on the spectator services sign.

Made: 2000

2001/84/506

2000