AP article on American Sign Museum
An article by the Associated Press all about the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati is popping up all over the web. Looks absolutely amazing. (If anyone out there has $1.5 million to donate to me so I can start the Canadian Sign Museum, I’m all ears.)
Ghost Signs of Hamilton
Currently showing at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Ghost Signs of Hamilton is a modest photographic exhibition documenting some of Hamilton’s ghost signs (also known as ghost ads). These sometimes vast, painted murals were once ubiquitous in many industrialized cities. Most have faded with time, become obscured or completely hidden by adjacent construction, or been lost completely through demolition. Very occasionally they reappear, if only briefly.
Here’s Chris DeWolf on some of Montreal’s ghost ads.
Chris Brown and Elmo - See The Signs
[Thanks to Design Observer]
Signs and National Ideologies
MASZYNY DO SZYCIA (trans. SEWING MACHINES ), Warsaw, 1960s-2007. Ilona Karwinska 2007©
AS I WAS PREPARING a presentation about the Logo Cities project for the World Design Congress , to be held in Havana in October, it occurred to me that I have done very little to explore the meaning of monumental signs outside of capitalist economies. While we might be tempted to make easy, if entirely understandable, associations between neon signs and Western decadence (for example), a new photographic project challenges even this assumption. Polish Neon , a remarkable project of documentation by Ilona Karwinska, reminds us that monumental neon is not the sole preserve of North American drive-ins, diners, motels and casinos. As Karwinska notes, “With their intense interest in neon signs, the state officials [in Warsaw] would regularly request the engineers from Reklama [the State-owned sign company] to drive them around checking the condition of all the signs in the city and planning new ones”.
The recent, mass removal of signs across São Paulo brought cries of “Stalinism” (and “fascism”), and comparisons with the drab architectural sameness that, for some, typified the Eastern bloc. It’s unclear to me right now whether Warsaw is an exception, but the history of communist (albeit post-Stalinist) Poland clearly holds many surprises. Like the signs of São Paulo, Karwinska reports that most of the signs she photographed in Warsaw have disappeared. (Image courtesy Ilona Karwinska .)
Media Architecture Conference: The Impact of Building Integrated Large Scale Displays on Urbanism and Architecture (London, Sept. 11-12, 2007)
The future of logo cities, perhaps. Looks amazing.
Almost Architecture: A Film about High-Rise Signs in Montréal
Introducing Almost Architecture, a short interactive film about high-rise signs in Montréal. This is version 1.0: there are still a few minor glitches, and much more material to be added at a later date. Feedback welcome.
This database narrative was produced using the Korsakow-System*. Thanks especially to Frances Millerd for her major contribution to this production. (Good luck in Vancouver, Frances!)
*In order to play properly, this film requires that your web browser has Shockwave installed. (Here is an FAQ on Shockwave.)
Symposium in Review
The Montréal premiere of Helvetica: Matt Soar, organizer of Logo Cities; Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica; and, Hélène L’Heureux, Associée principale, Interaction/design, and director, SDGQ. Photo credit: Elida Arrizza.
IT’S NOW FOUR WEEKS since over sixty of us convened in Montréal for two days of intense talk about signage, branding and lettering in public space, and only now have I recovered sufficiently to attempt some kind of reflection.
Here goes:
When I had the idea for the symposium I knew I wanted to keep it small because: a) it would be more manageable (simply choosing to call it a ‘symposium’ rather than a conference certainly helped me); b) it might well be more productive (the best events I’ve attended have been focused around a set of consecutive rather than concurrent panels); and, c) I couldn’t imagine that there were too many people out there with the similar interests.
It turns out that there are lots of people who care passionately about signs, logos and lettering in public space, some of whom took the time to come to Montréal to share their insights. It’s also abundantly clear, in retrospect, that signs are even more remarkable than I had imagined: While they are often reductive in terms of design, routinely brazen in terms of their placement, and rather ephemeral as historical artifacts, the conclusion we all had to draw after two days of panels was that they are also immensely complex cultural and material signifiers (as the selection of papers posted on this website attest).
Several people expressed interest in attending Logo Cities 2. While I don’t have any immediate plans of my own for such an event, I’m open to suggestions as to when and where that might happen. I do have plans to try to secure a publishing contract for a book based on Logo Cities, and will post any news about that initiative on this website.
Over the coming weeks I will also be adding more information and media to the Logo Cities website, including: an expanded bilbilography based on the work presented at the symposium (this was Johanna Drucker’s idea); an interactive documentary about signs in Montréal; a gallery of logos and signs drawn from memory by visitors to the gallery show (thanks to Pata Macedo for those); and, a selection of photos from all the Logo Cities events.
Symposium Update #8: Done!
After two days of intense and fascinating panel presentations, a constructive and revealing roundtable, and a marvelous keynote, the Symposium has finally come to an end. We closed out with a public screening of Gary Hustwit’s film Helvetica, which drew a huge crowd – we figure close to 600 people. In the coming days and weeks we’ll begin posting some of the media from the symposium on the website. Thanks again to everyone who helped to make this possible: the sponsors, panelists, artists, moderators, grad assistants, and all the volunteers. Bravo. And now I must go lie down.
Symposium Update #7: Photos! (updated 7/5/07)
Photos from the Logo Cities Symposium events.
Day 0: gallery reception. Signs and artworks here and people here.
Thanks to our wonderful photographer, Elida Arrizza.
Symposium Update #6: The time is now!
The Logo Cities Symposium begins Friday 4th May. Registration is now on-site only, beginning at 8.15am, subject to availability (currently we still have extra space).
Faculty/Professional Faculté/Professionnel $75
Student/Unwaged Étudiants/Non-salariés $40
The registration fee includes: access to all panels on 4 and 5 May, including the premiere of Helvetica on 5 May; plus admittance to the Logo Cities gallery reception on 3 May.
Final program here.
HELVETICA
The Québec premiere of Helvetica: 7.30pm Saturday May 5, 2007. Venue: Hall Building H-110, Concordia University. Admission by donation on the night only. More info here.
Venues
All Panels: J.A. de Sève Cinema (Library Building LB-125) at 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. on the Sir George Williams (ie downtown) campus of Concordia University. CLICK HERE FOR MAP
Helvetica screening: Hall Building H-110. 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W, on the Sir George Williams (ie downtown) campus of Concordia University. CLICK HERE FOR MAP
