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In American culture, the standardized fallout shelter sign is an icon of Cold War life. Bill Geerhart of Conelrad, a website specializing in the social history of the Cold War, wrote an article that can be called the definitive history of the sign. The project was headed up by an Army Corps of Engineers manager named Robert Blakely, who navigated the sign through the bowels of the US federal bureaucracy. The earliest version was created by a graphic arts company in Virginia:
Blair, Inc. frequently worked on government contracts and the ideas generated in Blakeley’s office were shared with their designers. Blakeley stated to CONELRAD that he provided the following basic guidelines to his people to convey to Blair, Inc.: “I gave them the fact that it had to be a simple reproducible image…and I did say ‘tell them that in the design they had to have a place for us to print directional arrows.’” Blair, Inc. was also instructed by Blakeley that the sign “had to be something that would get people’s attention and give them direction to the location.” To this end, Blakeley said that he asked a representative from the company what the best color combination was for this purpose. The response that came back as quoted by Blakeley was: “orange or yellow and black is the one that is most dominantly used in the graphics field.” He added “And I said ‘if that’s right, let’s do that and it was that simple.”
Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Conelrad
Photo: Roadsidepictures [Flickr]
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, there’s no denying that neon signs have become a big part of the urban landscape. Take, for instance, the iconic Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign above was designed by Betty Willis for the Young Electric Sign Company in 1959. She never copyrighted it, because she considered it a gift to the city – as a result, the image became synonymous with Las Vegas.
Oobject has an interesting list of The 10 Most Important Examples of Neon Signage for your enjoyment (don’t miss the Vegas neon boneyard!):
The most impressive neon districts in the world include Tokyo’s Ginza and Shibuya, Osaka’s Dotonburi which was the inspiration for Blade Runner, the worlds largest shopping street, Nanjing Road in Shanghai and, of course, Vegas and Times Square. Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy district (named after an American who opened one of the first go go bars in the 70s) deserves inclusion on account of its unpleasant strangeness, with live elephants paraded up and down the pink neon streets.
Anthony Herman is fighting City Hall, and he’s not shy about it: the used car salesman used all weapons at his disposal including his business signage which he used to call out the Mayor and the Polk City councilmen:
Herman contends Polk City for years has harassed him with zoning violations, tied him up with lawyers and sent squad cars to deliver letters to his Johnston home in a bid to embarrass him. Polk City, for its part, has alleged that Herman ran an illegal salvage operation from 300 Sandpiper Court and routinely dumped vehicle fluids into the city’s storm sewers.
The dispute, which spills through five Polk County court files, turned nasty last fall, when the Mighty Good sign for three days described Polk City Mayor Gary Heuertz as "a lieing little Nazi turd."
The commentary returned last week, when Herman’s sign began telling Polk City residents that "Our mayor and council sure are ass holes."
City leaders say Herman’s messages have drawn complaints from some residents – mostly parents who came across them while transporting small, reading-age children – but insist that the city has no plans to try to interfere with his right to free speech.
"A lot of people are coming out of the woodwork to look at it," Heuertz said of the sign. "So tourism’s not a problem … .
(Photo: Rodney White/The Register)
