Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the world’s largest indoor theme park and the first and only Ferrari themed park recently opened in November 2010. Located on Yas Island, only a few kilometres from Abu Dhabi city centre, the site hosted the UAE’s first Grand Prix at the Yas Island Marina Circuit in November 2009.

RSM was thrilled to be part of such a unique project. RSM’s passionate team of Ferrari enthusiasts completed the theme park’s identity signs, entry sequence, exterior wayfinding program, facility signage, and structured car park graphics.

In addition to being the world’s largest indoor theme park, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi has quite an impressive stack of statistics:

• The 86,000-square-metre enclosed area of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi can fit seven football fields in ‘head to toe’.

• The Ferrari logo on the roof, the largest ever created, measures 65-metres in length and covers an area of 3,000-square-metres, which could fit at least seven basketball courts.

• The volume of concrete in Hoover Dam could fit inside Ferrari World Abu Dhabi.

• Ferrari World Abu Dhabi needed 12,370 tons of steel to create its structure; the Eiffel Tower only needed 7,000 tons.

• Ferrari World Abu Dhabi features restaurants staffed by four Michelin-starred Italian chefs.

Solingen, called the “City of Blades,” renowned for the manufacturing of fine swords, knives, scissors, and razors is the location for one of RSM’s international mixed-use projects.

Finding inspiration through the cultural landscape and industries of Solingen (heavy machinery, precision products, the colors of iron ore glow), RSM is scratching the surface to uncover the wealth of textures, patterns, and materials that make up this environment. This inspiration and research has strongly influenced a comprehensive sign program for this dynamic mixed use retail and entertainment center.

RSM has been selected as the architectural graphics consultant for the new Aztec Student Center on the San Diego State University campus. 

Projected to open in late 2013, this new student union building will feature many on campus amenities for the students including a market, fitness center, food court, theater, retail spaces, bowling alley, and individual meeting spaces for the many student clubs and organization. RSM will be working with the student organizations, administration, and facilities group at SDSU to create a comprehensive and state of the art digital wayfinding, identity, and specialty graphics program that will integrate with the historic Spanish Mission architecture and invite students campus wide to congregate, study, eat, and play. 

The graphics program to be designed by RSM will include exterior and interior identity and wayfinding signage, a unique flexible electronic signage program throughout, as well as specialty graphics for the entertainment venues.

RSM principals Harry Mark and Martin Schwartz have just returned from a two week trip to China, having visited six cities and meeting on five exciting on going graphics projects.  The meetings consisted of project presentations, coordination meetings, signage mock-up reviews, and marketing meetings, along with a bit of free time to take in the exciting sites of China.

Nanjing Taiwan Trade Mart: Construction of the project is progressing at super sonic speeds, with opening scheduled for mid September 2010. Harry and Martin were on site to review signage mock-ups and coordinate with the local sign fabricator to ensure the design intent is carried through all of the details of this comprehensive identity and wayfinding program.

Yantai One: Concept design presentations of the branding, logo, and wayfinding family were enthusiastically received by the group of stakeholders in this dynamic growing city in northern China.  Coordination with a local sign fabricator at this early stage was arranged to facilitate a seamless integration of the graphics with the architecture and marketing initiatives.

One City: The city of Ma’an Shan in central China is the site for this family focused urban retail and entertainment center.  The RSM designed graphics family was carefully crafted to work well within tight budget constraints and unique cultural and language parameters.

Check back soon for more project updates from China….

The sign family has been designed for maximum flexibility and clarity.  The signage uses a system of custom pictograms and icons to identify the many uses and create a clear messaging system, with a dual language system complementing this simple approach.  The material palette adds clarity to the system as well with different complementary materials being used to enhance each of the district’s characterstics.

The graphics family of signs is rapidly moving forward into schematics and design development and the RSM team continues to hone and refine the designs, while coordinating with the US and China based consultant team.

Make sure to check back for more updates on the UCR Fabrication process…

The goal was to take the best of the existing site and make it more engaging with greater depth of quality and information. Improvements include the featuring of the most recently completed projects, the abilitiy to select portfolio galleries by project category, and descriptive listings of the studio’s services and offerings. Not to be forgotten are glimpses of the energetic team and principals, and the ability to dive into their minds and daily lives by viewing the philosophy, and process as they continue to progress and create bigger and better ideas and designs.

So kick back and surf the site at: www.rsmdesign.net

Love to hear your thoughts!

As the director of RSM Design’s Shanghai coordination and management office, Johnny works closely on our projects in China to assist the client and our design team with up to the minute communication and coordination efforts. Johnny has more then 20 years of experience in the field of architecture in both the US and Mainland China. He graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology and is a licensed architect in the state of Illinois, and with the team of designers, managers, and production specialists based in Shanghai, plays an important role in the successful implementation and coordination of the graphics with the local development and consultant team.

Johnny has worked with numerous worldwide renowned architecture firms and property developers on a variety of prominent commercial and residential projects in the US and Mainland China. These projects include, the Shanghai Times Square (100,000 sm) and the Shanghai Central Plaza (70,00 sm) with Wong & Ouyang, the Guangzhou Taiku Hui (400,000 sm) with Arquitectonica, the Shanghai K Wah Center (85,000 sm) with K Wah Group, the Shenyang Hang Lung Plaza (191,000 sm) with Hang Lung Properties.

Johnny continues to pursue the goal of design excellence and has the ablility to have a much broader and flexible control of design approaches within his office in Shanghai. These new efforts have helped him and his team win recognition from many clients as well as authorities.

Stefanie S. Ashton is a New York State registered architect and LEED Accredited Professional. While working for several of the top architectural firms in New York City, Stefanie combined her love of graphics with her commitment to innovative architectural, interior and environmental design.  

Stefanie has had a varied career ranging from designing homes and furnishings for celebrities, restaurants for renowned restaurateurs, retail meccas such as Barney’s New York and renovating New York’s Apollo Theater.  She has restored the liturgical elements of a Californian cathedral, updated an elite private school and her graphic design skills helped bring the “City Secrets” travel book series to life.

Most recently at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners in New York City, Stefanie was the lead interiors architect for the Natick Collection in Natick, Massachusetts.  Stefanie oversaw and collaborated with RSM on the comprehensive architectural graphics package, created entirely new tenant criteria packages as well as the award winning interiors. Stefanie has a Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture from Tulane University in New Orleans.  Having recently relocated to Geneva, Switzerland with her family, she is constantly inspired by the gorgeous views just outside her door.  

Stefanie’s passions include, letterpress stationery, making things with found objects, watching her son’s creative beginnings, and all things exceptionally designed.

RSM Design created a multi-lingual wayfinding and graphics program for the entire project. The building graphics utilize nautical imagery in keeping with the project location. 

The team here at RSM looks forward to the project opening in April and wanted to share a sneak peak of the graphics development.

The inspiration of airplane propellors, wings, and rutters, as well as the twists and turns of the wayfinding signage forms create a seamless sense of place and an experience for everyone who visits this exciting shopping destination. 

Congratulations to Sonae Sierra and the rest of the team on another successful project!