An evacuation map looks like a simple thing: a floor plan, some arrows, a few symbols. Most of the questions we’re asked come from that assumption, and almost all of them have the same answer underneath.
An evacuation map is not a drawing of your building. It is a set of instructions for one person, standing in one spot, who needs to know which way to go right now. Nearly every design decision that surprises people follows from that.
These are the ten questions we hear most often, and what’s behind each answer.
1. Why is my map rotated? Shouldn’t north be at the top?
Your architect’s drawings put north at the top, and for their purpose that’s correct. Architectural plans are drawn north-up so they can be compared with each other and read against a site plan.
An evacuation map has a different job. It is rotated so that what’s at the top of the map is what’s in front of you when you stand at that sign. If a stairwell is on your left as you face the corridor, it needs to be on the left of the map. A north-up map read by someone facing south shows everything reversed, and a reversed map sends people the wrong way.
2. Can I get one map and print it twenty times?
The answer follows from the first question.
If each map is rotated to its reader and marks where that reader is standing, then each posting location needs its own version. Print one map twenty times and it will be right in one place and wrong in nineteen.
The “You Are Here” marker has to match the exact spot where that sign hangs, not roughly the right part of the floor. Anyone can check it by standing at the sign and comparing, and an inspector can do it in seconds.
So one floor with six posting locations means six versions of the same floor plan, each with its own rotation and its own marker. It’s also why we ask exactly where every sign will hang and which way the reader will be facing. Settling sign locations early is the most useful thing a client can do to keep a project moving.
3. Can we show evacuation routes down every hallway?
The instinct makes sense: more information should mean more safety. In practice it works the other way.
An evacuation map is read under stress, in seconds, often by someone who doesn’t know the building. Its job is to remove decisions, not add them. Arrows through every corridor turn a set of instructions back into a diagram of the building, and the reader has to work out which arrows are meant for them. Some of those arrows were drawn for people standing elsewhere on the floor, and from this sign they can point in contradictory directions.
Routes drawn through every corridor also tend to run into dead ends and areas that aren’t part of the exit path, which then appear on the map as though they were.
What works is a primary route from this sign to the nearest exit, and a secondary route in case the first is blocked. Two clear paths are easier to follow than a network.
4. Can’t we just use our architectural floor plan?
Architectural drawings carry dimension lines, wall assemblies, furniture, mechanical runs, room numbering and title blocks. A builder needs all of it. Someone looking for an exit needs almost none of it.
For an evacuation map, the plan is redrawn and simplified: corridors and exits brought forward, everything else pushed back, anything irrelevant removed. A map that is an architectural drawing with arrows added on top is one of the things we’re most often asked to fix.
5. Why do the symbols have to be a specific set?
Fire safety symbols aren’t a style choice. NFPA 170, the Standard for Fire Safety and Emergency Symbols, defines a common set so that a firefighter arriving at an unfamiliar building can read a posted map at a glance, and so that occupants can understand it whatever language they read.
It covers the symbols an evacuation map relies on, such as exits, fire extinguishers and fire alarm pull stations. Icons from a general graphics library may look similar, but they aren’t the standard, and they’re the kind of thing that gets questioned at inspection. Every symbol we use also appears in a legend on the map, so nobody has to guess what it means.
6. Does the text really have to be that large?
Some jurisdictions set minimum text sizes and contrast requirements. Where they don’t, the practical test is the same: can it be read from a normal standing distance, by someone who may not have their glasses, in poor light, in a hurry? Script fonts, condensed fonts and low-contrast colour pairings all fail that test.
Glare is the one people miss. A glossy print under corridor lighting can be unreadable from the angle people actually approach it, however good the map is. That’s why the finish of the print matters as much as the artwork.
7. What goes on an evacuation map?
These are elements commonly found on evacuation maps:
- Primary and secondary exit routes
- Exits
- Fire alarm pull stations
- Fire extinguishers
- The assembly point
- The building address and the floor shown
- Emergency contact information
- A “You Are Here” marker specific to that sign
- A legend explaining every symbol used
For what specific states and cities ask for, see our code requirements pages.
8. Does the exact wording matter?
In some jurisdictions, yes, word for word.
Elevator instructions are the common example. New York City’s Building Code, section 3002.3, sets out the exact wording for elevator emergency signs: “IN FIRE EMERGENCY, DO NOT USE ELEVATOR. USE THE EXIT STAIRS.” A paraphrase that means the same thing does not meet a requirement written that way.
Where your jurisdiction specifies wording, we use it exactly as written.
9. Do we need approval before we print?
Sometimes, and it’s the most expensive thing to get wrong, because it usually comes to light after the signs are made and mounted.
Some fire departments require evacuation signs to be approved before they’re installed. Others don’t, and the process can vary a great deal even between cities in the same state.
We give every client the same advice: confirm the requirements with your local fire inspector or Authority Having Jurisdiction before production begins, and get the answer in writing.
10. Our maps are five years old. Are they still valid?
Only if nothing has changed. Renovations move walls, relocate exits, and change where extinguishers and pull stations sit. A map that no longer matches the floor gives wrong directions, however it looked when it went up.
Any change to exit routes, exit locations or safety equipment means the maps need to be checked against the building, and redone where they no longer match.
The through-line
Almost every answer above comes back to the same principle: the map serves one reader, standing in one place, under pressure.
Rotation, a version for each location, the “You Are Here” marker, restrained routing, simplified linework, standard symbols, readable text: none of these are aesthetic preferences. They’re all there so that someone can find the way out in the few seconds they have to decide.
If you’re planning maps for a building, we’re happy to talk through posting locations before you commit to anything.
The information here reflects commonly applied fire codes and our experience in practice, and is for general guidance only. We are evacuation map designers, not fire safety consultants or legal professionals. Your local fire department or Authority Having Jurisdiction has final say on what your building requires.