Category: Our work

Lesser Poland Voivodship Science Center ‘Cogiteon’ is an institution that combines education, science, entertainment, and art. Its mission is to foster knowledge and skills through play and to engage children and youth in independent or collaborative scientific experiments, research projects, and social initiatives.
The center is an inspiring, modern, and memorable place. This impression is further enhanced by the intriguing architecture of the building, located on the site of the former Czyżyny airport. The design of the facility, inaugurated in 2024, was developed by the German-Polish architectural firm Heinle, Wischer und Partner Architects.
The dynamic form of the structure resembles a sharp rocky outcrop emerging from beneath the earth’s surface. This effect is amplified by a garden located on the building’s sloped roof. The industrial, raw interior—full of concrete surfaces—houses a permanent exhibition, laboratories, a conference center, an underground parking garage, offices, a restaurant, and a café. The building is surrounded by an extensive garden layout designed to preserve the natural landscape and biodiversity. Additionally, the rooftop features not only the garden but also an observation terrace.
The task of designing and implementing both the external and internal signage of the facility was undertaken by Kolektyf. Their starting point was the building’s original, modern form and its purpose. As a result, the signage incorporates white, painted, geometric shapes serving as backgrounds for wayfinding texts, alongside colorful square backgrounds for pictograms that resemble elements from the periodic table. The composition of these two types of elements evokes reflectors casting beams of light—this further draws users’ attention to the information displayed and guides them along the correct paths.
To facilitate navigation for numerous visitors and participants in scientific workshops, the designers opted for concise, legible messages and simple icons. Outdoors, the colors were “reversed” to ensure maximum readability: free-standing informational boards are black with white text, while the icons on colorful tiles remain unchanged.
Inside Cogiteon, the signage and wayfinding backgrounds are set against raw, gray walls made of architectural concrete. This prompted the designers to use white backgrounds for improved readability and contrasting black text, created using the Basier typeface.
The environmental graphics design at Cogiteon are straightforward and functional, with clear, legible icons and no unnecessary decoration. The only more ornamental elements are custom-designed calligraphic LED signs indicating the ticket offices, store, and café. The same hand-drawn typeface, created by the Kolektyf team, appears in the signage for conference room names.

Polana Jakuszycka is an iconic place on the sports map of Poland, located in the Sudety Mountains on a mountain pass on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic. The microclimate, picturesque location, natural beauty and numerous ski, cycle and hiking trails make it a hugely popular tourist and sports destination. The Bieg Piastów cross-country skiing competition, the most famous mass event of this discipline in Poland, has been held there since 1979.

Dolnośląskie Centrum Sportu Polana Jakuszycka (DCS), a multifunctional sports facility, began its operation on Polana Jakuszycka in the winter season of 2023, serving as a tourist and sports base, fully harnessing the potential of the destination. Competitions and training camps can now take place there all year round: cross-country skiing, biathlons, MTB, and running.

Our task was to prepare the signage for this multi-purpose facility used by hundreds of skiing, mountain biking and trekking enthusiasts. The building houses changing rooms for athletes, a hotel, a conference centre, restaurants, a bistro, a swimming pool, a sports hall, and an interactive centre, among others. An underground car park has also been built underneath the sports arena with the biathlon shooting range. Our aim was to subtly convey the sporty nature of the venue and incorporate the signage elements into the interiors and architecture of the building.

A distinctive feature of the signage are the vertically mounted yellow-painted steel profiles providing information about the main functions of the building. The inspiration for these elements came from the skis that athletes place on racks in between training or competitions. They form an interesting combination of vertical shapes in different colours, with elements of different sports brands’ typography and branding. We opted for a yellow differentiator in our DCS signage system – influenced by the branding of the facility, it effectively stands out in the interiors and provides a strong contrast, clearly legible for the visually impaired. Another important element of the building’s identity is the patterning, which we assigned to the four floors of the building. The designs are a synthesis of the footprints left on the ground by athletes of various disciplines: cross-country skiers (classic style and skate), MTB cyclists, as well as cross-country skiers and hikers conquering the mountains on foot.
In the graphic design, we referred to classic Olympic icons from the 1970s and created a typeface that we used for signage and numbering, and that can also be used in the venue’s marketing materials. We also prepared a database of synthetic graphic forms, which we used to create several simple murals complementing the graphic design of the building.

The facility has enjoyed considerable popularity since it was opened. It is not only the venue of major sporting events, but is also very popular with local communities. It can be reached directly by train from Wrocław or the Czech Republic – the train station is right in front of the entrance to the building.