Over the past year, the City of Long Beach has worked to develop a comprehensive Wayfinding Signage Program for major gateway entries, parking, and coastal access in Long Beach. An extensive outreach effort was made to include a Wayfinding Signage Program Survey, and a series of community workshops for the public to provide input on the factors to consider in designing new signs to be installed in the public realm throughout the City. The outreach was intended to ensure that the design template for these new signs reflects the community's values and identity, and results in cohesive and functional signage for gateway entries to the City and coastal access, as well as public parking in Downtown.

The need for establishing a Citywide sign program was identified as part of the Fiscal Year 2016-2017 budget. In December 2015, the City issued a request for proposals and selected Selbert Perkins Design as the consultant to create design guidelines that will be used to implement a uniform look and theme for new signs in the public realm.