Arconas joined forces with Canadian companies Entro, and PCL Graphics to design, manufacture, and distribute resources that encourage physical distancing and help keep people safe as they navigate airports and public spaces.
Arconas and Entro recently donated $10,000 of proceeds from the sale of these COVID-19 resources to Food Banks of Canada, Feeding America, and the Black Health Alliance.
Social distancing measures have required designers to rethink the way people move through and spend time in transportation terminals and public spaces and importantly, how design can be part of a global outreach to relieve some of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of a collaborative project, the team released a series of cough shields and physical distancing decals. Seat covers, stickers and shields produced by the companies have already been utilized in the Brownsville Airport and Bus Station, Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Orlando Sanford International Airport, Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, Red Lake Airport and various Airport Dimensions’ shared-use lounge networks, among others.
“While spaces can’t easily be changed, with effective communication and strategic design interventions, we can change human behaviour. Especially in these challenging times, we believe good design can make difficult and necessary changes possible,” says Wayne McCutcheon, founding partner at Entro.
“The crisis forced us to look at our core business and pivot as quickly as possible to provide our clients with the resources they needed to resume operations. By leveraging the expertise of PCL and Entro, we were able to provide solutions such as cough shields and physical distancing stickers to our clients to keep their guests and staff safe,” explains Lynn Gordon, Vice President of Business Development for Arconas.
Arconas, a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-performance furniture for airports and transportation terminals has long been committed to the passenger experience. PCL Graphics, which has converted into a PPE safety supplier as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a leader in retail, commercial and graphics fabrication. Entro specializes in branding and experiential graphic design, focusing on how people move through and experience place. The team worked together previously on signage and product solutions for airports, transportation terminals and other high traffic public spaces.
It is these combined passions and complementary expertise that allowed for a prompt response to the needs of our clients and community to adapt spaces to new distancing and sanitation conditions without losing a sense of the human experience and a high standard of design acuity and quality. “In these uncertain times no one knows what the new normal would be, our objective is to use our combined experience of over 100 years to add some certainty to help people and companies to navigate through these times”, says Armond Shahinian, Partner at PCL Graphics.
