The urban design and wayfinding research clearly says poor
wayfinding systems can increase travel time by up to 20% in complex
environments, showing how design directly impacts efficiency in public
spaces.
Working on a brand for a city
infrastructure project is a specific kind of humbling.
For Hashtag Designs, a Pune-based studio,
contributing to work in this space has meant stepping into a context where
design is not experienced by a few thousand users on a screen, but by hundreds
of thousands of people moving through physical environments every day. These
are not users who are exploring or engaging with design intentionally. They are
commuters. They are often tired, in a hurry, and focused on reaching a
destination. They are not thinking about design. They simply need to understand
where to go.
That invisibility is the goal.
“The best civic and public design is the
kind nobody notices,” says Madhushree Kulkarni, founder of Hashtag Designs. “If
a passenger reads a sign, understands it immediately, and moves in the right
direction without pausing, the design has done its job. It only becomes visible
when it fails.”
This shift in context changes how design is
approached at every level. In brand work for startups or consumer products,
there is often room for personality, expression, and experimentation. In public
infrastructure, those priorities are replaced by clarity, legibility, and
reliability. Design decisions are not just aesthetic choices. They directly
affect how efficiently people move through space.
Typography, for instance, must function
across drastically different scales. It needs to remain legible on small
digital screens as well as large-format signage across stations. Color systems
must perform consistently under varying conditions, from artificial indoor
lighting to outdoor daylight. Information hierarchy must be clear enough to
guide a wide range of users, including someone unfamiliar with the system or
someone navigating in a rush.
The margin for ambiguity is extremely low.
Hashtag Designs’ involvement in such
projects reinforced a principle the studio already valued. Constraints are not
limitations. They are the conditions that shape effective design. When the
environment demands clarity, design becomes more disciplined, more intentional,
and ultimately more useful.
Madhushree notes that civic projects also
shift how designers think about authorship and ego. “In commercial work, there
is often a temptation to make the design expressive or stylistically distinct.
In public design, that instinct has to be set aside. You are not designing for
recognition. You are designing for comprehension. Your job is to step back and
let the system work.”
This discipline has a lasting impact beyond
civic projects. The same question that governs public design becomes equally
relevant in commercial work. Does the design serve the person using it, or is
it serving something else? In a metro station, the consequences of getting this
wrong are immediate and visible. In a digital product, they may appear as
drop-offs, confusion, or disengagement over time.
Scale also introduces a deeper
understanding of systems. Designing a single visual element is one kind of
challenge. Designing a system that functions across an entire network is
another. A wayfinding system, for example, must remain coherent across multiple
locations, maintained by different teams, and updated over time without losing
its logic.
This requires more than visual consistency.
It requires documentation, clear rules, and a structure that can sustain itself
even when the original designers are not involved. The system has to be robust
enough to hold its integrity over time.
For Hashtag Designs, this way of thinking
translates directly into its approach to branding. The studio applies the same
principles of clarity, scalability, and structure to smaller projects, ensuring
that brand systems are not just visually consistent, but operationally
reliable.
Being based in Pune, a city that continues
to expand its infrastructure and urban systems, also provides context for this
kind of work. The growing complexity of urban environments highlights the
importance of design that functions seamlessly at scale. It reinforces the idea
that design is not just about communication, but about navigation,
understanding, and efficiency.
Perhaps the most valuable lesson from civic
projects is designing for the user who is not paying attention. The person who
is not reading carefully. The person who needs to understand briefly, what to
do next.
Design at scale reveals a simple truth: clarity is not optional, it is
essential.
Whether guiding commuters through a city or users through a digital
product, the brands that succeed are the ones that make understanding
effortless.
If your business is ready to build systems that work seamlessly across
every touchpoint, visit Hashtag Designs and discover how
structured design can support real-world impact and growth.
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