Outpatients Department
Firecatcher were commissioned to created a welcoming enhancement for the Outpatients Department of County Hospital, Stafford. As part of the brief we worked with consultation groups to determine the style, themes and wayfinding aspects of the scheme. Working with nature as the chosen theme, documented for it’s positive contribution to improving health and wellbeing in clinical spaces, we took an abstract approach, and looked at representing the range of local habitats in a stylistic way, through simple shapes, colours, textures and pattern helping to bring a sense of the outside inside. The hospital trust’s values were also integrated into the design.
As well as the entrance enhancement, a wayfinding scheme with accessible maps and icons, was developed to help clarify the clinical departments and the onward patient journey.
Expanding upon the core existing scheme, we were commissioned to create a distinct identity for each area within the Outpatients department to help with wayfinding.
Working with the existing colour ways within the Department, four distinct Habitat's were designed to help distinguish the different areas within the Outpatients.
Exploring Staffordshire's Natural Habitats
The Green Area focused on the Woodland habitats around Staffordshire, particularly Cannock Chase and the Churnet Valley. A range of abstract shapes, patterns and textures were created, looking at the plant life and wildlife that might be found here.
The Woodland Habitat takes inspiration from the wild flowers and garlic carpeting the floor of Harston Wood, the bluebells of Hem Heath Woods and the variety of wildlife that live in the woodland covering Cannock Chase and the wider Churnet Valley area. These include deer, woodlarks, pied flycatcher, woodpeckers, hedgehogs, dormouse, rabbits and the Speckled Wood butterfly.
