District of Columbia Public Library

Knot Studio completed the placemaking and wayfinding project for the D.C. Public Library System, using a comprehensive master program that unifies our capital city’s historically rich and also modern library system.

Through a beautifully simple master program, Knot Studio’s design work for the DC Public Library System helps library users find their way. Knot Studio designed a placemaking and wayfinding system that strengthens the library system’s identity by unifying its 20 existing libraries and six new buildings. Prior to Knot Studio’s redesign, the DC Public Library System lacked consistency in its wayfinding cues. Knot Studio worked with library leaders and four architectural teams to bring a visual unity to library buildings that varied as much in age as they did in design. Knot Studio’s signage master program gives the interior and exterior signage program a visual language that reflects the unity of the entire DC Library System, and responds to each library’s urban or residential setting. Knot Studio’s placemaking and wayfinding program simplifies the library user experience through beauty and consistency in signage.

As the DC Public Library System undergoes major renovations and new construction in the 21st century, Knot Studio has helped its libraries make the user experience flow more effortlessly than ever.