![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-Squ.jpg)
Docks en Seine Signage by Nicolas Vrignaud
French designer Nicolas Vrignaud has designed the signage for a building comprising a fashion school, shopping centre, exhibition hall and restaurants on the banks of the Seine in Paris.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-09.jpg)
Created for the development (called DOCKS en Seine) by architects Jakob+MacFarlane, the signs wrap around the existing concrete structure.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-02.jpg)
Vrignaud designed the project in collaboration with architect Lorenzo Ascani and graphic designer Fanny Naranjo.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-03.jpg)
Here's some more information from Vrignaud:
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The signage intervention in the building DOCKS en Seine plays with the usual needs of signage and with the context.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-04.jpg)
The building is a sign. It participates in the urban renewal of the 13th district of Paris and it becomes one moment along the Seine, as a sequence, a cursor.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-05.jpg)
This signage project is based on this idea of sequence and also on the idea of promenade, of wandering.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-11.jpg)
The preconception of this signage project is to punctuate this horizontal movement by "beacons", and to create a declension on four levels since the access at the bank level of the Seine towards the rooftop.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-10.jpg)
The fact of preserve and renovate the existing building keeping the concrete structure offers the support of the signage system, which is as a moulding of this structure, to create a new relation with the architecture.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-06.jpg)
It takes place at different points: circulation, shop, communication, etc.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-07.jpg)
These moulds called "plugs", are separated from their support to become independents. Every plug is unique. They are grouped by type according to their application.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-08.jpg)
The plugs are used like billboards all along the building, and the graphic design, in opposition to the Plugs, could evolve according to the visual identity.
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-12.jpg)
DOCKS en SEINE, Cité de la Mode et du Design
Shops, restaurants, fashion school, exhibition hall.
Quai d'Austerlitz, Paris 13
12400 m2
Architects : jakob & MacFarlane
Signage design : Nicolas VRIGNAUD (with Lorenzo Ascani architect, & Fanny Naranjo Graphic designer)
client : Icade
![](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2009/10/dzn_Docks-en-Seine-Signage-by-Nicolas-Vrignaud-01.jpg)