Thursday, January 15, 2015

Anti-Neon "Keep America Beautiful" Campaign

Lady Bird Johnson began an anti-neon campaign on America's highways.
The beginning of the end of neon arrived in the 1960s when the first lady at the time, Lady Bird (yes, that's right) Johnson decided that highways should be beautiful and neon was not part of the plan."Ugliness is so grim," the first lady once boasted. "A little beauty, something that is lovely, I think, can help create harmony which will lessen tensions."

Up until the passage of 1965's Highway Beautification Act neon was highway flypaper, attracting motorists with flashy classic steel-and-neon to stop and sleep or eat. After that, smaller back-lit plastic signs that were a better blend with the highway's natural foliage marked the roadside attractions. Neon-be-gone became persuasive from highway to highway all across the country.

Keep America Beautiful resurrected Lady Bird do-gooder wife and mother to a symbol of national pride, looking after America, a figure who distinguished neon's cutting-edge architecture.

Friday, January 09, 2015


Fresh up with 7up
Oh, wait, there's another jingle that might strike your fancy.

Let's all go out to the lobby,
Let's all go out to the lobby,
And drink some 7up.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Signs All Around Us

When looking out the window of a moving car or when walking down a busy street, what do you typically see? Generally you'll see homes, businesses or other similar buildings. But how do you know what they are? It's because of the sign letters that you may be able to see on the outside or above on a billboard. I'm sure you're saying, "no, my home doesn't have any signs on it". But what about your address? The numbers on the outside of your house that make it stand out from all the other houses.

There are other signs to show you the time or even the weather forecast. The other types of signs you see could be huge advertisements. These can be large over the top computerized signs, or even just handmade paper displays advertising a yard sale. Is the world becoming so over advertized that when you can look up in the sky and see not a bird, but a plane trailing an advertising banner, a blimp with printed advertising, or even skywriting? Is this the only way we know how to express ourselves and how to get our point across?

We also need sign letters. when we are traveling. How do you know which road to take if you don't know which road you are on, which exit is the nearest rest room, or a road leading to your destination? These are very important things, especially when traveling long distances. Besides directing traffic on the outside of buildings, signs can also do the same on the inside of buildings. If you're in a hospital or airport, you can almost always look up and see a sign pointing you in a direction with a little map of where else you can go from there.

Sign letters can be very helpful even to those who can not see. That may not make any sense, but the use of Braille as signage is extremely important to people in this day and age. On that note, if you're watching a T.V. show and see the words being written out at the bottom of the screen that some of us take for granted. Other ways that we use signage: a restaurant can display the dish of the day with changeable letter signs, or even with a computerized digital version. Those are becoming increasingly popular with many businesses. What other display do you need to make a choice for your meal before you even enter the restaurant?

Without a scoreboard at sporting events you may have a hard time keeping track of the score. In those sorts of stadiums you also have arrows, like in an airport, that will direct you to your correct departure gate. Traffic control signs can also help to block off traffic from an accident and save others from suffering the same fate. Without signage or display sign letters, it could become increasingly difficult to get through certain aspects of the day as you travel around.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Clifton's Cafeteria--Those Days are Long Gone

Clifton's Cafeteria in Los Angeles
The days of the hometown cafeteria are over, I mean...well...with the exception of Hometown Buffet, which is nothing like the old-style privately owned cafeterias of yesteryear.