Occupy Sandy Wayfinding

Inspired by the Walk [Your City] platform, a group of volunteers in New York City is using the concept of guerrilla wayfinding for disaster relief following Hurricane Sandy.

Occupy Sandy Wayfinding describes itself as “a civic-minded guerrilla intervention for a time of crisis.” The design, production, and installation of the signs for Occupy Sandy Relief NYC is handled by members of Not An Alternative, Occupy Town Square and the Pratt Disaster Resilience Network.

One Occupy Sandy coordinator explained why the signs exist, saying, “What we need to do is let people know that hey, 10 blocks away there’s hot food, blankets, flashlights, water and medical services.” With power outages, closed streets, and transit delays, the Occupy Sandy wayfinding signs provide locals with the information they need to access emergency relief centers by foot.

The majority of the signs  have been installed in Rockaway, giving directions and distance to the YANA Community Center and the Occupy Rockaway Hub.

The folks behind the project recently launched a website to crowdsource feedback for where people would like to see signs installed, and to track where signs already exist in order to maintain them.

We’re really excited to see these volunteers take such an innovative and meaningful spin on the original project, and can’t thank them enough for using wayfinding to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy. To find out more about their efforts, check out their website here.