Minneapolis, Minnesota

Hennepin Healthcare

With the addition of a new, seven-story, 367,000 square foot specialty clinic, Hennepin Healthcare Clinic & Specialty Center, Hennepin took the opportunity to create a new wayfinding logic to mesh with the new facility’s goal of creating a holistic patient experience.

The new wayfinding logic takes advantage of how people are already navigating downtown Minneapolis and identifies exterior entrances using street addresses. On the interior, the new reasoning simplified wayfinding by removing the room number as the primary wayfinding tool and creating zones identifiable by color.

To reflect Hennepin’s holistic approach to healthcare, there was a need to create a design that was warm, welcoming, and inviting. The interior signage was inspired by a focal art piece that extends from the ground floor to the top of the Specialty Center. The colors and textures from this glass piece coordinate with the accent color of each floor and are used on the backer panels of patient room signs.

Throughout this project, Corbin Design worked closely with Hennepin’s Patient Advocate Group. This group worked to ensure that the logic was easy to understand and simple to adopt by staff, patients, and visitors. Their input led to a more straightforward, legible design.