Study on improving the design of Outdoor Signage for Choenho-dong Rodeo Street

Seoul suffers from over congestion of outdoor signage. Signage is on everywhere including on windows, on entrance way, on every available space on the building wall. The excessiveness is up to the point that decorating surface of a building is almost meaningless and most signage is lost in each other's profuse presence. The competition to attract more attention is resulting in bigger, brighter, and more stimulating signage. As the result, outdoor signage of Seoul have lost its intended function to provide useful information and befallen to be viewed as visual pollution. As it is an important visual element of city view, the outdoor signage also serves important role of delivering needed information in proper way to enhance convenience of city life. At the same time, it is a very important marketing tool that is essential to economic activity. Outdoor signage also holds enormous potential to act as a visual and structural element to improve city view just as a beautiful architecture does. However, outdoor signage that does not consider the harmony with its surrounding environment can only be treated as visual pollution. The effort of Seoul to better the city view by improving the outdoor signage started at Jong-ro area. By reforming outdoor signage, the streets of Jong-ro achieved much more harmonious and aesthetically pleasing city view. The study went through analysis of current status and characteristics of outdoor signage of Cheonho-dong Rodeo Street, Gangdong district to suggest detailed design solution to reform the roadside view and to revitalize the street.