Autonomous device

Autonomous device
Originally uploaded by Arenamontanus.

World's Finest Mattress Here

This is a double-sided back-lit sign can with the faces missing. It still has a few unbroken tubes, including a couple draped with an american flag. It appears to be plugged into an extension cord on the left.
....so, is the banner saying that the one-and-only finest mattress in the world, is right there in that building? Who knew? I would have figured that Micheal Jackson or Richard Branson would have owned it.

Barminski

....and the award for "best use of logotype fonts and vintage corporate identity parity design in a short video clip, set to syncopated drum and bass break beats" goes to ..........Barminski!

ad observations from bluejake

from bluejake yesterday:

In five years, every square foot of street-facing frontage downtown is going to be covered in advertising. Every corner will be a mini-Times Square, and you will be able to rent out a billboard for $5/month. It's an absurd way to live, but I don't see it changing.

Jake Dobkin is the publisher and cofounder of Gothamist, the creator of streetsy, and a core member of the New York Photobloggers

GraffitiWriter

I heard about this project from Applied Autonomy a while back, but only recently stumbled across the website. The GraffitiWriter carries a payload of five enamel spray cans that are connected to a pile of circuitry, actuators, sequencers, and flux capacitors, that enable it to reproduce dot-matrix messages painted directly on the ground. It's sort of the Vinyl Killer of the sign industry.

check out the videos:
clip 1
clip 2

An Ordinary Building

click picture to enlarge

On the night of September the 20th 2006 a sign appeared on a building in the center of Viterbo, an ancient city in central Italy, not far from Rome. Apparently put by the City Council it has already caused quite a stir. The sign is in fact an art piece by controversial artist duo Eva and Franco Mattes.

Evil Signtist YouTube Group

I've just created my own Evil Signtist group on youtube for signage related video clips. Feel free to join and/or contribute video suggestions.

here's my new favorite:



see also:
Graffiti Zone

The Cult of Bill

I know you've heard of the Cult of Bob, but do you know about the Cult of Bill?
It's members are all celebrities named Bill. No one knows who the head Bill is, and if you ask any of them they will most surely deny that they are involved in the secret society.The Bills have recently attracted an increase in unwanted attention, after being the target of a Bill posting in a non-Bill posting designated area. Rumor has it the the Bills are deeply rooted in both sides of the law, and are in hot pursuit of this poster-art culprit.

photos: LaughingSquid (more here)

Related:
Last Night's Cult Party
the lastest issue of Vice

magnetic letter time waster

link


from:
neatorama

This Interactive Magnetic Letterboard is an online version of those refrigerator magnets shaped like letters. You can move them around, but be warned that other people online are also playing with the same letters!

Lerning to read with signs

Scott Beale sneaks up on the Hollywood Sign

check it:
Scott's flicker set

see also:
Sign of the week 5

and:
NPR on the sign

The Struggle to Save Vintage Signs in LA

A recent article from the Sacramento Bee, outlines the history of neon signage in Los Angeles, and explains what steps are being taken to try to preserve the vintage signs.

NOTE: sorry about the SacBees stupid registration. Here's a username and password for you.....
user name: sacbee5ux
password: 123456

thanks:
Karen
see also:
Museum of Neon Art

NYC Street Art Bike Tour

Saturday, October 21st, 2006
12:00 PM
Meet at the corner of Pitt and Delancey Streets (Manhattan) MAPNew York photobloggers Jake Dobkin (bluejake.com), Mike Epstein(satanslaundromat.com) and Will Sherman (www.untitledname.com) lead a bike tour of graffiti and street art in the LES, Nolita, and SoHo neighborhoods. We’ll check out the newest stickers, throw-ups, paste-ups, and murals along our route below.

Flickr: Altered Signs Group

This sign indicates that the building is accessible to handicapped rockers.


Sometimes signs just don't quite say enough on their own. Thankfully many people today recognize the need to amend public signage to make it better, and document it photographically.


previous:
Hella Street
live Richly

Panic Button

Another cross-post from boingboing



Now you know why some people frantically run into traffic. They're just following the directions on the sign.

Panic Button creater: Jason Eppink
submitted by:Ryan
photo by:Steve Diet Goedde

new approach to family planning

Just spotted this on on BiongBoing



Since the president's abstinence only program has failed to lower the rate of teenage pregnancies, the new approach, is "Do it in the butt."

NSFW

Violet Blue puts the S.F in N.S.F.W.

Recently one of my very best friends was the subject of a Billboard Liberation Front attack. Violet Blue is the first ever sex columnist for the
SF Chronicle.
It seems that the BLF took it upon themselves to promote Violet's column
"Open Source Sex" with bus shelter posters, as well as signage on the buses themselves. The idea, I think aw to parody the opening segment of "Sex and the City" where the main character see's herself on a bus ad, and freaks out. The bus shelter pictured here, is across the street from the Chronicle's offices. Here are several links to pieces relating to the prank.
Congratulations Violet!

on boingboing

on tinynibbles


the NEW boingboingboing podcast

on laughing squid

on MetroBlogs