New High School Room Number Design 2.0

This is a continual project from my last Instructable "New high school room number design" (check that out if you haven't already). I was super happy to see the work I created around the school, but some of the room numbers were missing around the school or needed to be replaced, other signs needed to be redesigned entirely. The new mission now was: finalizing all the room numbers before Parent Teacher Conference night so the parents can get to their children's classroom on time. This Instructable is a step by step guide on creating a new door number design for school.

TinkerCAD

Paper

Pen/Pencil

3D printer

On the first day of school there were signs that were missing or incomplete. For example, the 600 wings were missing all its signs, parts of the Art and Technology wing missing their labels, some signs were taped up onto the wall, some were printed out on paper then taped, and several rooms in different areas of the school still needed to be worked on. I decided to bring this attention to Mr.Ligouri (huge shout out to him who supported me throughout this project) and he explained to me that I will be receiving an order soon with all the numbers that will be needing an update.

A couple days later, I received an order from the custodians, who was the one who help put the signs up over the summer (shout of to them). They handed me a piece of paper, and had written down all of the room numbers that were either missing or needed to be replaced. Not only that, they also requested brand new custom door letter designs for the entire school, it was five pages long. The deadline was approaching pretty fast, 2 weeks. Why? This was when Parent teachers conference night was and the school wanted to finalized the signs before then. So I went straight to designing.

The day after I was handed the five pages of room numbers and letter designs, I immediately began drafting sketches. I started out by sketching checkered patterns, stripes, and experimenting with different designs. I was also playing around with the logo placements like on the left side, or right side, or maybe both sides? I kept sketching, trying to see which design would best fit the school. After brainstorming ideas that could truly spark interest, the idea finally came to me. I quickly sketched it onto a sticky note and used that as the reference point for my final design to start Tinkering.

I first started by sketching concepts and turning my 2D sketches into 3D with CAD. I compared previous designs with newer ones to understand which one I'll keep. I chose to place the school logo at the top to allow space for lettering and braille below. I also had to keep in mind how long it'll take to print each one of them cause I only have short amount of time.

Different from the last instructables when I learned the braille numbers (check that out if you haven't already), this step requires mastering the entire braille alphabet, 26 unique letters! I ran into some challenges where I struggle to learn and understand what's happening, but with consistency and practice anyone could master this. It's important to master this as it could be reliable and accessible for anyone who needs it. I later completed the entire lettering in the order, it's very important you stay organized and neat as possible to not repeat the same letters twice. Setting each dimension is crucial such as the height of the braille so your fingers can glide along it smoothly.

Dimensions:

Braille height: .26in (you can change the length and width depending on your size)

Box: 2.5in x 8in x 2in

Letters: 1.375 x 7 .5 in x .23

In this step my teacher Mr.Ligori(huge shoutout to him again) helped print out the design. We both worked together to make this project doable. We loaded up the file from TinkerCAD onto the printer file then waited a couple hours to let them print. Each sign took 4 hours to print which was way longer than the 1 hour for the smaller sign (this was in my previous instructable)

Now that we have the physical copy in our hand, I compared it to the existing signs around the school in a side by side comparison to look for any details I might've potentially missed. The new design has shown to be visually clear, appealing, and improved the overall quality of the school design and concept. I was now confident in the improvement, I took the initiative to coordinate with the custodial staff about how and when the new signs could be installed across the school.

After talking with the custodians they showed me how it will be put up. They first put double sided tape on the back- a strong, effective, and long lasting solution. This is how we put up the previous room number from my last instructables I made (check that out if you haven't already) with the same concept and idea in mind. We will do the same thing with the lettering design too.

Now that we added the adhesive on the back of the sign we now have to measure the height of the signs, it's required from the ADA-Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to make sure people with disabilities have access to read the braille if they're in a wheelchair or visually impaired. Signed by President George Bush, It shows no discrimination against people with disabilities, the signs would also have to be right next to the door handle as a tactile cue for navigation for the visually impaired. The door handle will serve as the purpose for the landmark so that the visually impaired can follow to find the correct sign. This is the American Standard for the ADA. We made a stick that is 5 feet off the group and level it with a level tool to ensure that it's aligned properly. We used this as the base reference point throughout the entire school making sure everything is neat and organized. (The pictures are all in order showing how it's put up, first step to last!). The ADA requires all signs to be within 48-60in off the ground so keep that in mind.

When I thought I had finished the project, I noticed the basement was incomplete. I took notes on which numbers needed to be worked on. I realized that the basement sign entrance was unique as it had 2 signs instead of one. To keep the same consistency, I decided to use the same design as the top but change the bottom sign. Instead of the arrow pointing down and the sign saying "Down" I wanted to create something different like a stairway design going downward. I spoke with the principal and asked her for her opinion as I had in mind saying "Downstairs" but she wanted something a little more classic, a little more old school, "Lower Level." she said to me. After hearing that, I went straight to Tinker CAD, beginning the design process and filling in important details, such as adding braille, color. and the basement print.

After finishing the design and putting the braille on them, I started to print them out so it can be used in the basement as soon as possible.

When the basement went to printed, the braille got messed causing it to have the same braille for every basement sign printed. This error affected other signs, leading to extra time to reprint. Always pay close attention during the printing process to catch any potential errors early and prevent future mistakes and save you time.

Now that I reprinted all the signs correctly, it can now be put up for display use

I realized the same thing with the basement but instead the whole 600 wing hallway was missing! it was a huge deal as it was different from the rest of the school as it still had the old school room numbers design so I went straight onto TinkerCAD again and started adding the braille to each room number also while editing the numbers as I made sure each correct piece was their correct color as well.

This was how the numbers for the 600 hallway used to look like

After finishing editing them in the CAD program we went to print them out and once I got them I walk into the 600 wing to compare them to make sure I have every detailed correct. Once I made sure everything was good we started to put up the sign in the hallway.

After finishing the majority of the rooms around the school, I received one final order from the school that needed to be finished. This paper included some additional rooms that weren't listed on the previous pages. I immediately began working on them-editing the braille, making sure the color was perfect, and designing the signs in CAD software.

From the beginning of my project, I had a few extra signs that couldn't be installed outside the classroom because the number size didn't meet New York state standards. Instead of discarding them, I repurposed the signs to use inside the classroom. This turned out to be helpful-students, teachers, or substitute teachers sometimes forget which room they're in and would have to step into the hallway to check. By placing the signs inside the classrooms, this problem was solved efficiently, giving the extra signs a useful purpose. (Check out my "New High School Room Number Design" instructables if you haven't done so already)- I go through step by step on how I came up with the idea and how I got it done.

I finally finished everything but not on time for the parent teacher conference night for the parents, but I was still able to finish a little after. I'm proud of my designs and happy the school took the opportunity for me to redesign the school number system.