Brands are applying design thinking to promote a new index of social etiquette

Leading the charge are Base Design and Hastings Architecture. In July, they unveiled Way Forward Signage Co., a collection of elegant and sophisticated signs for the workplace. The idea for Way Forward Signage Co. came about when Nashville-based Hastings Architecture—an essential business—was preparing to reopen in May. “We looked around and we had these bad, temporary signs that were essentially handwritten on static cling material, that sort of thing,” David Bailey, principal at Hastings, tells Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. “We needed a well-designed approach.”