ABSTRACT
The public display of signs is inherent to the organizing process of urban settings: cities are made of semiotic landscapes. Numerous urban signs are notably a matter of way-finding. They provide a whole graphical layer for the accountability of places and the everyday organization of public settings. Street nameplates, traffic lights or signboards inform the passer-by of their own location in the city and give indications about the suitable behaviour to adopt. The role of signs in the ordering process of places has already been stressed in two kinds of settings: airports and supermarkets. In Paris, subway signs became a central issue at the beginning of the 1990s. At that time, a team of specialists was gathered to reconsider the whole organization of subway signs. Surveys, field studies and experiments were conducted that resulted in the creation of a complete way-finding system and the redaction of a particularly ambitious policy.
