The initial plan for the CERN site was drawn up by Zurich architects Rudolf and Peter Steiger. As increasingly larger and more powerful accelerators were brought into service, the workspace requirements for scientists increased. A large number of experimental infrastructures - halls, ring tunnels, laboratories - have emerged as the equipment necessary for CERN's research and discoveries.
The surface or underground installations are spread over two distinct sites: the Meyrin site (80 ha), straddling the Franco-Swiss border, and the Prévessin site (83 ha) in the Pays de Gex. Counting the 9,500 people who are on the CERN’s sites on a daily basis, it is comparable to a small town.
To overcome functional orientation problems, the establishment and maintenance of a coherent signage system is essential.

The signage is one of the pilars of our identity, one of the most basic elements that allows to define both the geographical territory and its physical components (parking, buildings, workshop, experimental areas, offices).

It includes both an objective dimension (content of the panels, definition of the space) and an identificatory dimension (architecture of the panels, existence of "portal of reception", meaning given to the name of the buildings …).