Environmental Graphics
Walls that tell the story of the place and the people behind it.
Kolano Design creates environmental graphics that tell an organization's story on its walls: history timelines, feature walls, murals, donor walls and lobby graphics. For Shady Side Academy's new Rockwell Middle School, which opened in January 2026, Kolano designed a history timeline wall, entrance graphics and donor recognition, and gave design direction for stair and hub murals by artist Greg Valley.
At UPMC Altoona, Kolano organized decades of hospital history into a timeline wall for the refreshed lobby. At UPMC Passavant, the lobby feature walls include a video monitor timeline, two Walls of Honor and a digital donor wall. In Weirton, West Virginia, Kolano designed a museum-style lobby exhibition for Form Energy's battery factory.
- Story, content and archive research
- Concepts for walls, murals and timelines
- Graphic layouts scaled to each wall
- Final art, materials and production specifications
- Fabrication oversight and installation review
Selected Projects
Full portfolio
Common Questions
What are environmental graphics?
Environmental graphics are graphics designed for a specific space: wall graphics, murals, timelines, exhibit panels and dimensional logos. They carry a brand or a story into a building and help set the character of a room.
How is a history timeline wall developed?
It starts with research into photos, dates and stories from the organization's archives, narrowed to a sequence that reads at a glance. Kolano's timeline at UPMC Altoona moved from a conceptual timeline through several design revisions with the UPMC Altoona Foundation before final art.
Can a feature wall be digital?
Yes. Feature walls can combine printed graphics with video screens. Kolano's lobby feature walls at UPMC Passavant are built around 55-inch video monitors and include a timeline, Walls of Honor, a donor wall and a media wall.
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6026 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206