Virginia Gehshan, FSEGD
Principal
Responsible for the success of some of CG’s largest and most complex projects, Virginia works with a range of clients in the areas of environmental identity, architectural signage and wayfinding. She started her own design firm in 1983, then partnered with Jerome Cloud to form Cloud Gehshan. Virginia is also an educator, teaching in the Industrial Design department of The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Along with Jerome, she is the recipient of the 2010 Fellow Award from the Society for Experiential Graphic Design. As past president and board member of SEGD, Virginia has also played a central role in the development of the profession, developing client tools, Process Guide and authoring the SEGD Standard Form of Agreement.
Virginia has led a variety of award-winning projects for signage and wayfinding, interpretive systems, digital displays, map design and donor recognition. Her recent projects are a mix of public parks and gardens, cities and towns, college campuses and medical centers. With a background in human factors and cognition, Virginia leads wayfinding planning at CG, both in terms of conceptual strategies and detailed recommendations. She has also formulated models for programming and master plans which have been used as the basis for many of CG’s academic and medical projects.
Some of her recent projects include the University of Chicago, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Boston Parks and Recreation, Cornell University, Princeton Health and the Philadelphia Water Department.
Virginia graduated cum laude from Cornell University, where she received a B.S. in Design and Environmental Analysis.
American Public Garden Association
Society for College and University Planning
Society for Experiential Graphic Design (Past President and Board member)
Print Casebooks
National Endowment for the Arts
Designing Diagrams: Making Information
Accessible Through Design, 2011
SEGD Design Journal, 2010, 2007
Signs of the Times
International Sign Contest Awards, 2010
Wayshowing: A Guide to Environmental Signage,
Principles and Practices
Lars Müller Publishers, 2005
Sign Business, 2004, 2001, 1991
Graphic Design: America Two:
The Best & the Brightest from Across America, 1998
Sign and Spaces: A Survey of Environmental Design,
The work of twenty-two major international firms, 1996
Identity Magazine, 1990, 1992, 1995
American Center for Design
Design Year in Review, 1991
Print Casebooks 8: The Best in Environmental Graphics, 1989
American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Graphic Arts
American Planning Association
Boston Society of Architects
Cornell University
Design on the Delaware
Drexel University
Jefferson University (formerly Philadelphia University)
Society for the Marketing of Professional Services
Society for Experiential Graphic Design
Syracuse University
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia
University of Cincinnati
