Assisting with the environmental graphics for NewYork Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York City has been one of my most rewarding endeavors at Array. When approached to contribute to a pediatrics project, I was excited to know that my creativity would positively affect young patients, their families and the staff who work in the pediatric intensive care unit.

I began by collaborating with the design team to discuss how to integrate the literary theme throughout the Unit. As the design team gained consensus from staff on which children’s books would be featured, I researched patient board wall placement, layout and formatting. Throughout the project I learned about the client approval process, copyright laws and the importance of correct language translations for this diverse patient base.

Over many months, I attended meetings to gather feedback and adjusted the designs accordingly. Hearing the reasons behind the staff's comments was very beneficial.

“Was the board large enough and legible from the patient’s bed?"

"Would it be located low enough for staff to write comfortably?"

"How convenient was it to maintain the surface?”

This feedback influenced the design as well as our research on what substrate to print on and how to seal the boards to prevent the spread of germs.

This project provided a lot of creative freedom and design challenges. Since the patient board is in every patient room among different imagery from the two books, it was a welcome challenge to illustrate an image that merged with both books and accent colors. The sizing and wall placement played a major role in the overall footwall composition where a TV, outlets, shelf and hand sink were planned. The elongated custom size made the patient board a seamless part of the overall design.

“Learning through Literature,” the Hospital’s literary theme, is brought to life in this Unit as The Tickle Tree and If You Hold a Seed stories play out across soffits, footwalls and large corridor graphics, as well as the patient boards.

This blog written by a former graphic designer with Array, Jessie McNeese.