New Design Ideas: Sustainable Signage and Smarter Displays

Looking for sustainable signage ideas for your business? Here are practical display solutions we discovered in Florence that can help hotels, museums and cafés reduce waste and improve visitor experience.

At Cherry Grove Craft, much of our work involves helping hotels, museums, and restaurants create better experiences for their guests. We recently went looking for new inspiration at the MIDA International Craft Fair in Florence. During the trip, we also visited the Pisa Botanical Garden and Museum to see how they use signage, and we came away with some great ideas for our shop.

1. QR Code Map Signs

One of the best ideas we saw was a move away from paper. Instead of handing out thousands of paper maps, the gardens use scannable QR code signs.

Visitors scan the sign with their phone to open an interactive map. We think this is a genius idea for any business, and we are already planning our own wooden version. QR code map signs are brilliant because they help businesses:

• Be Sustainable: It stops thousands of disposable maps from ending up in the bin.

• Save Money: You pay once for a personalised sign instead of paying for constant printing.

• Stay Timeless and Modern: It keeps your business looking up-to-date and eco-friendly.

We’ll be making and listing these signs soon. They are a perfect, low-cost way for tourist spots or hotels to go green.

2. Museum Plaques and Art Gallery Signs

In the museum, we saw portraits of the historical figures behind the botanical gardens. Beneath them were hanging name signs detailing their name, the artist and year. This inspired us to create:

• Hanging Picture label Signs: Wooden signs designed to hang from portraits to show names in a natural way.

• Information Plaques: Small plaques to go beside pictures to provide more detail. Of course the volume of text will need some thought for accessibility reasons. Unlike a phone screen, you can’t "zoom in" on a wooden sign, so it’s important that businesses keep their displays legible for everyone.

3. Great Ideas (But Not a Fit for Us)

We saw some beautiful laser-cut screens used as blinds in the botanical office. While they look great, we’ve decided they aren't the right product for our shop. The amount of wood and machine time needed would make them very expensive to post and sell.

We want to help businesses find sustainable wooden products that are also affordable. We’d rather leave those specific items to the specialists and focus on the high-quality signage we do best.

Finally, we made time for a quick stop at the Leaning Tower, where the main man himself, Pete, tried out his own "Leaning Tower of Peter" pose!

We’ll be launching our QR code signage soon. If you’re looking to reduce printing and improve your visitor experience, explore our custom signage range or get in touch.