We undertake some wildly different projects at KEYLAY on a regular basis. One day we’re creating taglines for a travel pillow, the next we’re designing a trade show booth for a paint company, and the next we’re overseeing the rebrand of an automobile dealership.

But in June 2018, one project came along that involved a forward-thinking politician, some unique but intriguing challenges and the opportunity to help countless Atlanta citizens. And it’s been one of the most rewarding projects we’ve ever worked on.

It started when Atlanta City Councilmember Amir Farokhi put a call out to local graphic design agencies to redesign the signage at thousands of private parking lots throughout the city.

Some said the signs were easy to miss and hard to read, which could lead motorists vulnerable to predatory booting.

Let’s raise the bar for design in the City! The bigger sign in the pic is current signage required outside private parking lots. Imagine if it was user-friendly. My office is launching a design competition for a new sign that works better for everyone. https://t.co/mbsHlk9yVX pic.twitter.com/JL76r64zZK

— Amir Farokhi (@AmirForATL) June 17, 2018

Farokhi said government far too often ignores the user experience when it executes services and public policy.

“Good design can go a long way to helping people understand the city, feel comfortable in the city and even love the city,” he said. “So, I wanted to use a design-driven solution for the parking information signs required by the city on private parking lots. The intent was to reduce confusion for folks who were frequently being booted because they were not aware of parking lot rules.”

Farokhi sent a mass email about the contest to a short list of designers, and of course KEYLAY was one of them.

The contest interested us, especially as we received more details. It inspired us because of the ways we imagined these signs helping Atlanta’s motorists. And if you know anything about Atlanta, you know we have a lot of traffic congestion (as much as we hate to mention it about the city we love!), meaning a lot of people looking for parking.

We also appreciated that Farokhi and his team were open to simplicity and modern design.

“They were super openminded and ready to make some waves, make a change,” said KEYLAY CEO Kyle Strahl. “And we had a little extra time to take it on so that’s how we got started.”

We love our city and the people in it. And we wanted to help.

Farokhi said the new sign needed to be intuitive — “maybe even friendly” — while including specifics on when and how you can park.

We got to work creating several designs and then narrowing them down, coming up with new headline approaches, redoing content and working with different color schemes. Then it was time to submit the concepts. And they stood out.

They were also very excited that we were local designers and that we were in Farokhi’s district.

KEYLAY came out on top out of more than 40 designers who submitted their work for the contest.

But our work was far from over. Farokhi and his team realized they needed to use our initial design as a foundation to work off of. They opened up a bank of hours and worked out a quote for the project.

After that, we met with them twice in person to discuss designs and refine the direction.

“We kept going back and forth on different color variations that they thought would work better from green to blue to peach,” Strahl said. “They liked the idea we came up with for the ‘Peachy ride you got there’ with the Georgia connection.”

We are still working on a private parking lot sign redesign with @KEYLAYDesign A sampling of recent iterations from a meeting today! pic.twitter.com/88MkqXvzsq

— Amir Farokhi (@AmirForATL) September 27, 2018

Several rounds of content editing followed after that, and everything had to be approved by city officials. It was determined that we really needed to focus on the booting and towing aspects, so we modified the design. It was really interesting to be in the middle of seeing how the different layers of city government work.

We decided it would be a good idea to make a live mockup and have it printed out and mounted on foamcore so people could get a better sense of the visual depth and how it would work. Then Farokhi presented it before the full city council, which aired on the city’s TV station. Which was exciting to see!

“It was unique knowing so many eyes are on it and there were a lot of comments,” Strahl said.

Word came through soon after — they had final approval from all parties.

The project took seven months from start to finish, and while it was not without its challenges, Strahl said Farokhi made a great partner to accomplish the goals with.

“Working with Amir was amazing. All of our team liked working with him. Super thoughtful, kind, generous and really on the ball,” he said. “I see him as someone we would work with on a lot of projects in the future. We felt very confident about the partnership.”

Small stuff makes a big difference in how we experience a city. I’m excited to introduce this sign, designed by downtown’s ⁦@KEYLAYDesign⁩ and funded by my office, that will replace the poorly designed one you see above it. Parking lots in the city must have it by April 1 pic.twitter.com/ILDJHsrQy7

— Amir Farokhi (@AmirForATL) February 14, 2019

Farokhi gave high marks to KEYLAY as well.

“Working with Kyle and KEYLAY Design was a delight for two reasons: first, he is a great designer; and, second, he brought a patience and flexibility needed when you work with City Hall,” he said. “He and the firm excelled on all aspects of the project and property owners and residents seem to be happy with the new sign.”

And the project is one that continues to pay off in different ways. That’s what happens when your work is replicated thousands of times in parking lots across the city.

So many people we know have heard about the project that they’ll text or email us or hit us up on social media when they see a sign somewhere around the city.

We’ve also enjoyed talking to people about how the new signs help clarify some issues that the city had and the aggravations that motorists previously felt with parking issues.

It’s exciting to know that we got to help make things easier and clearer for people. The people we see every day around the city we love.