Giant Olympics signs to cover skyscrapers

Vancouver can expect to see gigantic Games-related signs on the sides of skyscrapers starting as early as October 2009. Last week, city council passed a bylaw package allowing owners to begin installing large-scale celebratory signage Oct. 1. The special technology used to cover a building face relies on warm, dry temperatures, weather not found in Vancouver’s winter months. “At the most, the signs could be as large as a full face of a building,” general manager of Olympic and Paralympic operations Paul Henderson was quoted as saying.

Only 10 to 15 downtown towers will be plastered with images greater than 10 per cent of their surface area, but thousands of banners and smaller signs will cover the city, Henderson said. “Definitely we expect the images to build excitement,” he said. What constitutes “celebratory” is open to interpretation. It could include images of skiers shooting down mountainous slopes or speed skaters rounding a curve – anything that creates enthusiasm for the Games. But it doesn’t mean free advertising.

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Neon Signs Rules Relaxed

The world economic downturn means that governing bodies are reviewing how they can help businesses to survive - as reported here in OHIO. Signs were the topic of choice at a Tuesday, July 7, City Council meeting, though debate over “regulating good taste” eventually led to the gutting of legislation governing neon signs in Uptown Oxford. The city’s Historic & Architectural Preservation Commission recommended limiting businesses to one 12-by-18 inch neon sign, but Council opted to completely remove requirements dealing with neon signs on the interior of buildings.

Considering the current economic climate, business owners should be able to explore any potential avenues available for drawing in business. “If you’re going to kick somebody while they’re down, why don’t you just step on their skull while you’re at it?” said a spokeman from the counicl. Council members also stripped the ordinance of a somewhat subjective requirement that would have required all exterior signs to be easy to read and maintain a simple design, color and materials.

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New Jersey Signs Point The Way

Visitors to the beachfront community of Seaside Heights New Jersey should have no trouble finding their way around this weekend with the help of a number of new signs recently installed by the borough. "The new signs incorporate a logo designed by our business improvement district and brightly coloured icons that truly say "this is a fun place to be,' " said Maria Maruca, executive director of the Seaside Heights Business Improvement District.

The signs are at two entrances to the borough: on Route 35 North, just before the exit to Seaside Heights, for visitors from Toms River and Seaside Park; and at the intersection of Route 35 South and Central Avenue, for those coming from Ortley Beach and other points north. Two additional signs may be found at Hamilton Avenue and Bay Boulevard, near an Ocean Ride bus stop; and in the center of the borough, at Grant and Central avenues.

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Chocolate Universe

In the middle of all its surrounding Times Square spectaculars, billboards and sign edifices, stands the flagship Hershey Times Square, a retail gift store which is a chocolate confectionary paradise that is the center of the chocolate universe. The gift store has come to represent a 15-story outdoor fantastical "chocolate factory" whose incredible signage includes 34 dimensional props, four steam machines, over 4000 chasing lights, 30 programmable gel lights, 56 neon channel letters, 14 front-lit signs and an LED ticker, all designed to represent the various Hershey candy products in their packaged wrappers.

In total, the spectacular measures 215 feet in height with a 60-foot width from one side of the building to the other. The crowning touch of its factory look was its two Times Square smoke stacks that are identical to the ones in its main Hershey, PA factory, complete with the company's name vertically painted on each stack. This entire collage of signs is located on the northwest corner of Broadway and 48th Street, on the lower rooftop and building sides of the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Although this sign project was completed in 2002, it is still a paramount project because of the diversity of signs used to complete the project.

With this diversity, the Hershey spectacular has an odd pedigree of also becoming a sign museum representing every type of sign technology used for outdoor advertising since the 1900s

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Breakthrough In New Signage Technology

It was announced today a team of top researchers at the University of California, Riverside has been able to fabricate microscopic polymer beads that can change colors instantly with the application of an external magnetic field. The most interesting aspect of the color changing properties of the polymer beads is that the color change can be reversed. The beads are being looked at closely for use in displays to make rewritable signage, posters, paper, and labels. The material could also be used to make magnetically activated security features and environmentally friendly pigments for paint and cosmetics.

The beads are technically magnetochromatic microspheres and have excellent structural stability according to the researchers. The microspheres are also very compatible with multiple types of dispersion media including water, alcohol, hexane, and polymer solutions. This allows the beads to retain their ability to be magnetically tunable in color when dispersed inside a variety of chemicals.

The color change of the microspheres is accomplished by simply changing the orientation of the particles. The microspheres themselves are created by mixing magnetic iron oxide particles into a resin that starts as a liquid and hardens with exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

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Railway Signage To Aid The Less Able

It has been reported in the Indian press this week that a new project to upgrade the signage at the countrys 1500 railway stations has been agreed. With a view to giving convenience to physically challenged people, the Railways have decided to provide special facilities in over 1,500 stations in the country. Special facilities like access ramps, reserved parking slots, low height water taps and suitable toilets for differently-abled people will be developed in phases at important railway stations, a senior Railway Ministry official said.

"The decision in this regard has been taken by the Railway Board. We have earmarked 1,560 stations for the purpose and the work at all these B-Category stations -- most of them in state capitals and important cities -- will be completed by the end of 2010," he said.

Railways have nearly 7,000 stations spread in 16 zones. Non-slippery walk way for the handicapped and special signage for the blind will also be put up at the stations. "The Board has also decided to have 'May I help you booths' especially to guide and assist them in case of need," the officer said.

Sounds like a really great idea.

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Better Bike Lane Signage

As reported in the US press better bike lane signage is a low-cost, high-impact solution for Urban Cyclists. Project 'Better Bikeways' is causing quiet a stir. While the rest of us spin our wheels waiting for that infrastructure cash to kick in so that we can have a smooth new bike path to ride on, Los Angeles-based designer Joseph Prichard has a much better idea-one that not only gets bikers on the road, but makes them safer too.

His proposal, Better Bikeways, calls for a simple, cost-effective overhaul of bikeway signage instead of the pricer options of paving new routes or marking dedicated lanes on the streets. Plus, it raises awareness for car and motor cycledrivers who may not know they're sharing the road with two-wheelers. "Unfortunately all too often the role of signage is overlooked during the design of new bicycle routes," he writes in his introduction.

Even better, he says, good-looking signs can work as an advocacy campaign for biking alternatives. "Effective widespread signage can be a powerful tool in convincing people to take up cycling as a mode of transportation." Here are some of the concepts presented in his signage system:

Navigation signs function like bus stop maps, pointing out major streets, neighborhoods and lengths of routes. Connection signage points out how far away riders are to other routes and distances to bus and Metro stops. Caution signs are attention-getting and use iconography that's vastly different than other street signage. Points of interest signs include resources for bikers like repair shops and cultural institutions.

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Iconic signs : Grain Belt Beer Minneapolis

This has to be one of the most iconic signs of the US Midwest hearlands. The Minneapolis Brewing Company rebounded in 1933 in the form of long-neck amber bottles with an updated logo,"The Friendly Beer With the Friendly Flavor". The company developed new packaging to meet the increasing consumer demand that changed since the pre-Prohibition days. Consumers wanted an easily refridgerated brew as more and more drinkers now consumed at home rather than in taverns. Over the years, Grain Belt experimented with several different bottle designs and advertisting techniques.

Around 1938, the Grain Belt logo began to feature the trademark bottle cap logo behind a red diamond. A few years later, the giant Grain Belt sign was built on the west side of Nicollet Island along the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis. For years, the billboard flashed the letters in sequence: "G-R-A-I-N B-E-L-T B-E-E-R". The neon sign hasn't cast a glow over the city since the late 1980s, but the vintage sign continues to be a popular fixture in the city.

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Digital Signage Storms the Channel

Digital signage is one of the hottest plays in the channel these days – and it’s poised for hotter times ahead thanks to Tech Data expanding its specialized business unit (SBU) for digital signage software and hardware. The most significant part of the expanded SBU is Tech Data’s new distribution deals with market leaders HANNspree North America, Hitachi Home Electronics, and Vivitek Corp. However, the expansion also covers the addition of Panasonic commercial displays; digital signage bundles from leading vendor partners; and nationwide installation support services through TDOnCall.

“Our expansion is in response to growing demand from our customers for greater product choice and depth of service,” said Wendy Linsky, Tech Data’s vice president of peripherals product marketing. “Digital signage is among the fastest growing technology segments in the channel.”

Digital signs are used in both public places (train and bus stations, retail stores, etc.) and private spaces (corporate offices) to convey information or advertisements to a targeted audience. Digital signage can be in the form of LCDs, LEDs, plasma screens or even images projected onto a wall.
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Neon - A Modern History

The Audi advertising slogan that was as brilliantly simple as it was ingenious: Vorsprung durch Technik! - this has actually evolved over the years and in 1980, it finally starts to appear more and more frequently when the Audi quattro is launched. This marketing era also marks a page in the Neon Sign history books with the Audi marketing machine pushing the current Neon technology to its then limits.

It features in the advertising rather than in the sales documentation. And it is advertising which sends out a very clear signal in May 1984. Europe’s largest neon advertising sign at that time is erected atop a high-rise building directly next to the Ingolstadt North exit of the A9 motorway from Nuremberg to Munich: a reddish-brown Audi oval bearing the slogan “Vorsprung durch Technik”. The lettering tips the scales at seven tonnes, while the trademark weighs four tonnes. 7,500 watts of power are needed to let Audi shine out for all to see at night too and to proclaim exactly where leadership through technology has its roots.

From October 1986 onwards, following the launch of the third generation of the Audi 80 with its fully galvanised body and styling that had been perfected in the wind tunnel, the words “Vorsprung durch Technik” once again make their way into the sales brochures and on-board literature. Ever since, the Audi claim has been an intrinsic element of the corporate identity that is now set in stone – perfection just can’t be bettered.

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National Signage Conference Announced

Everyone associated with the signage industry is invited to participate in the National Signage Research and Education Conference (NSREC) at the University of Cincinnati (UC), October 13-15, sponsored by the Signage Foundation, Inc. (SFI) in collaboration with the UC Colleges of Business and Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. The conference is designed for planners, governmental regulators, appraisers, marketing/branding specialists, sign makers and their suppliers, businesses that use signage, and those students and faculty who study signage and its impact on the business, social and visual environments.

The conference will provide an important venue for discussion of on-premise signage issues and concerns in positive, non-confrontational and research-driven dialogue.

Peer-reviewed research will be presented at the conference with numerous opportunities to interact with researchers on specific topics and their implications.

The UC is uniquely qualified to participate in these discussions because of the recent establishment of the James S. Womack/Gemini Chair of Signage and Visual Communications and the Terence M. Fruth/Gemini Chair of Signage Design and Community Planning. Both chairs were established through donations from Jim and Sharon Weinel, Gemini, Inc. and are the basis for the university's vision to become the nation's first center for signage

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Atlas Life Building Added To National Register

In Tulsa, Oklahoma– The Atlas Life Building in Tulsa has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society. The National Register is the nation’s official list of places significant in our history. The four-story neon sign and the roof line Atlas sculpture with the world on his shoulders overlooking the street below, have become icons that merged building architecture with building purpose, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.

The Atlas Life Building was constructed in 1922.

The Oklahoma Historical Society reports the building’s architecture represents the significance of the primary business that occupied it, the Atlas Life Insurance Company. Constructed when the Classical Revival style was popular between c. 1885 and 1940, the Atlas Life Building is among Tulsa’s remaining examples of this architecture, with near intact original features on the exterior and the primary public space on the first floor.

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