The Letterville BullBoard: Similarities between 2 centuries ( sign related )

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Posted by Bob Rochon (Member # 30) on :

I was talking to a Spanish customer of mine last night while I was pinstriping a truck. He was telling me about a friend who needs a sign. The guy was opening a fish store and wanted the lettering in spanish.

Well looks like I took the wrong language class in High school. Aint to many frenchmen flooding the US lately. I explained to him that might not be a good thing unless all he wants is spanish speaking customers, then it dawned on me that it can go both ways on this one.

We are faced today more than ever in my 35 years with a lot of language barriers. So now we are faced with providing a unilateral sign for all languages.

I thought hey why don't we do what most shops did in the turn of the last century. Put a big fish for a sign, just like the cobbler of yesteryear had a shoe and the dentist of yesteryear had a big tooth. No text needed to tell what you sell.

It just dawned on me how similar this turn of the century is to the last one. Hey does anybody have any Atkinson fonts in spanish?

Have you noticed a growing need for this & how have you dealt with this in your area?

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Bob Rochon
Creative Signworks
Millbury, MA
bob@creativesignworks.com

"Some people's kids"

[This message has been edited by Bob Rochon (edited March 14, 2001).]

Posted by Monte Jumper (Member # 1106) on :

Yep..."a picture is worth a thousand words"

Where's LE when ya need her...Who said that
Ed?

With all things however there are limits...a Proctologist Sign comes to mind Clip art would be hard to find also.
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Monte Jumper
SIGNLanguage/Norman.Okla.

[This message has been edited by Monte Jumper (edited March 14, 2001).]

Posted by David Fisher (Member # 107) on :

About an hours drive from me is The Gold Coast, they have an Indy race there so you may have seen it on the idiot box.
The Japanese just love this place and walking through the shopping centres down there is like walking down The Ginza.
There are a couple of shops that used to do nothing but signs in Japanese. Especially for the Opal/Tourist shops.
I've had to reproduce Mandarin lettering (or is that Cantonese) for signs in the past and its the only time I wished my brushes didnt hold such a good edge, well they dont any more but thats another story.
The number of Japanese tourists has dropped off since the yen died but now I seem to be bumping into North Americans at every turn.
Lucky I had a misspent youth at the cathode nipple and am fluent in most of their peculiar dialects.

Enjoy,
David

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D.A. & P.M. Fisher Signwriting
Brisbane Australia
da_pmf@yahoo.com

Posted by Ken Henry (Member # 598) on :

The "pictographic" symbols are used extensively at the Olympics to denote the various events and venues, and other services required by multilingual attendees. You've all seen them...the graphic figures used to denote things like boxing, swimming, diving, gymnastics etc.

These graphic elements were designed exactly for the purpose of communicating the who, where, or what to people of many differing languages, without using words or phrases. Some of these have carried into our present signage, and have become widley known internationally...the "handicapped wheelchair symbol" is probably the best known one.

For those interested, there's a very good book entitled "Sign, Signet, Symbol" that illustrates the development and origin of many pictographic images. Some are quite ancient, while others are more modern.

Back in my days in art school, we were given an assignment to develop just such a pictographic symbol that could be used on doors to substitute for the words PUSH or PULL. The premise was that they'd be used on doors in a new terminal of an International Airport. At first glance, it seems like an easy project to accomplish, but it's actually kinda tough to do. The symbols had to be simple, but convey the meaning of those words without actually using the words themselves, or any translation either. Some Interstate and Highway signage is now like this as well...the symbols for food, fuel, accommodation, airport, telephones, male/female washrooms, deer crossing, etc.

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Ken Henry
Henry & Henry Signs
London, Ontario Canada
(519) 439-1881
e-mail kjmlhenry@home.

Some days you get to be the dog....other days, you get to be the fire hydrant.

Posted by Bruce Williams (Member # 691) on :

We Anglos in the US will probably absorb more Spanish over the next few years. This is because of growth in the Latino population, and because se hablan español aqui about 100 years before English.

For some foreign letterforms, see the pi characters in Windows' Character Map.

Bruce Williams
Lexington KY

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Bruce Williams

Posted by Tod Swormstedt (Member # 2017) on :

Atkinson is Atkinson. The only differences are "tildas" and "accentos" or accent marks. I'm sure Frank would approve

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Tod Swormstedt
American Sign Museum
(800) 925-1110, ext 336

Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :

Icon signs continue to charm and appeal to the buying public and clearly depict a generality that's comforting in this time of extreme specialization.

A tooth doesn't say "Gum Surgeon." A swinging boot doesn't say "Orthopaedic Shoes."

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The SignShop
Mendocino, California
"Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"

Oh, for the faith of a spider! He begins his web without any thread.

Posted by Gavin Chachere (Member # 1443) on :

i would think a gynecologist's sign would draw crowds of teenage boys and beer on fri and sat nites...and probably even Old Paint..

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Gavin Chachere
aka Zeeman
Miller Supply Co./Ozone Signs & Grafix
New Orleans La.
www.millersupply.net
www.ozonegrafix.com

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