Comfama: Wayfinding for the Recreational Network

Context

Comfama is one of the oldest and largest cajas de compensación in Colombia. Founded in 1954, it operates schools, libraries, health services and a network of recreational parks across Antioquia. The parks are where most families experience the brand. Weekends, school holidays, company outings.

By 2013, three of the recreational sedes needed a unified wayfinding system: Parque Recreativo Copacabana, Sede Pedregal, and Sede Girardota. Each site had grown its own signage organically. None of it agreed with the others.

Challenge

Three sedes. Different scales, different building stock, different surrounding landscape. A pure-concrete urban site in Pedregal. A wide green park in Copacabana. A smaller community sede in Girardota.

The system had to be the same in all of them without erasing what made each one specific. It also had to be bilingual from day one. Comfama hosts international visitors and corporate clients, and the brand wanted accessibility built in, not retrofitted.

Concept

Two layers, one system.

The first layer is functional. Bilingual signs in Spanish and English. Clear hierarchy. Outdoor banners, totems, mid-scale wall signs, and small room markers. Same typography, same color logic, same materials across all three sedes.

The second layer is emotional. Seven verbs that describe what a family actually does in a Comfama park: Brinca, Sonríe, Baila, Sueña, Silba, Abraza, Disfruta. They live on the large outdoor pieces. They are not directions. They are the reason for the place.

Execution

The system covers the full visitor journey at each sede. Entry banners and large outdoor pieces. Vertical totems for orientation at decision points. Mid-scale signs for spaces like Gimnasio, Biblioteca, Piscinas, Restaurante, Canchas, Juegos infantiles, Administración. Small markers for rooms, restrooms, lockers, and exits.

Materials are chosen by surface and weather exposure. Printed banners on galvanized steel frames for outdoor entry pieces. Square tube structures for freestanding totems. Adhesive vinyl on smooth surfaces. Acrylic for indoor mid-scale signage.

The Pantone palette holds the brand together: 130 C, Process Cyan C, 376 C, and 213 C. The same four colors appear in every sede regardless of context.

Credits

• Direction and design: Santiago Valencia Vera, INSIGNIA Estructura de Marca
• Client: Comfama
• Established visual standards adopted across cross-functional contributors at INSIGNIA and Comfama's production partners.