Category: Rants

Dueling Signs

You know from the balloons that it’s either a birthday party or a mattress sale. Pasadena boasts four mattress stores in just two blocks — no wonder they are duking it out with illegal sidewalk marketing signs.

Termite Tent or Public Art?

Its not Christo wrapping the Reichstag, but the large colorful wrappings deployed by exterminators could double as public installation art. These graphic tents not only enliven and decorate a sleepy street, they signal either that a house is in escrow or someone is fixing a bad problem.

Captain Obvious Strikes Again – Part 3

Is this the best sign Los Angeles can do?

While we frequently point out our favorite signs, we also feel the need to expose the not-so-good. Here, to communicate that Ninth Street becomes one-way east, the City has erected this ungainly traffic control/guide sign right in the middle of the street. Stickers, vandalism and damage don’t help the situation…. Read more »

Big Pot, Small Plant

While we like creative plantings in the urban streetscape, a pot should be in scale with its plant. It will be years until this modest palm can hold its own in this huge planter.

Enough Signs?

Here’s a 3,000 sq.ft. two-store retail building in exclusive Newport Beach, California. We can’t even count all the signs degrading the humble structure — and the neighborhood. How many of the signs are strictly legal? Probably the freestanding pylon and two or three on the building. Another example of declining… Read more »

Understated sign? Do ya’ think?

In a mere 200 ft. down river this seemingly tranquil stream becomes the raging Salt Creek Falls, the second biggest waterfall in Oregon. We assume you just have to know about it – this humble warning sign, nearly hidden in the shade, doesn’t exactly shout out Danger!