Those street signs don't even have a consistent town logo! Some are cropped weirdly, and some don't even have the same shapes. Not super effective "branding."
Personally, I do sort of like towns that do that--so I can tell at a glance whether I'm in the city or a suburb. Most of the time I can tell by color/font/format choices, but a logo and corresponding color scheme make it pretty obvious. When I lived in Denver, for example, I knew what a Denver street sign looked like (they were pretty consistent), and they only put the logo (actually the city flag) on the big intersection signs, but if I wandered over the city border, I could tell if I was in Wheat Ridge or Edgewater and so on because most of their street signs included the town logo.
The "Street Sign font" is officially a Standard Alphabet for Traffic Control Devices, but any engineer should know what you're talking about if you call it "Highway Gothic."
I believe the City of Green Bay makes their own signs. I’m not sure why they have so my different font options as far as lettering goes, but it might explain the inconsistencies shown in my brother’s pics. In Allouez, we ordered our signs from a company in Wisconsin. We had our share of inconsistencies as well, because, as Paul noted, we went from all-cap signs to ones with only the first letter capitalized (these signs are apparently easier to read). We also had some signs with the logo on the left and some without. One of my jobs (which I really enjoyed), was placing new Village of Allouez stickers over the old, faded ones. I usually wasn’t replacing all four stickers on the two signs at once, as the stickers would fade at different rates depending on how much sun each one was exposed to over the years. The older signs we had in Allouez weren’t very reflective, but the newer ones were much more visible at night, as they were sheeted in Hi-Vis (high-visibility) tape. There are three districts in Allouez that were designated as historic districts, and they have brown signs (I think they’re brown, but I’m colorblind). These historic signs are much thinner than the other signs in the village and are not reflective. The village also recently changed from using round, solid posts to four-sided posts that have a bunch of holes on each side. The new posts are designed to break off when struck by a vehicle, which makes them safer, as they do less damage to the vehicle. Speaking of Kalb/Kolb/Colb St., it has always been spelled Kalb since I began working in Allouez in 1999, but there is still confusion as to whether Kalb is a street or avenue. If you look on Google maps or talk to long-time residents, Kalb is apparently an avenue, even though it’s just a half-mile or so long and isn’t particularly fancy. However, according to the official printout I had of every street in the village, Kalb was listed as a street, not an avenue, not a court, not boulevard, not a rue (yes, there are rues in Allouez). I believe there are one or two street signs along Kalb that have “St” as opposed to “Ave.” Years ago I had to put little “Av” or “Ave” stickers over the ones that had “St”, but I believe one still stands. Maybe I’ll go take a drive.
This isn't about fonts, but this brings to mind a 1 mile stretch of ostensibly the same road near my house that has five different names. In the span of that 1 mile, the name changes from Katie Kerr Dr., to Arcadia Ave., to Sams Crossing, to N Arcadia Ave., to Dekalb Industrial Way. And no apostrophe on Sams!
Fun entry today, thanks Norb, and Paul for running it. On the Venn Diagram of my interests and Paul's, street signs is definately in the intersection of the circles, pun defanitely intended. Just yesterday I left my neighborhood the 'back way' due to street repaving and noticed that the streets closer to that end had new street signs. They had some sort of badge or logo, the type you find in historic neighborhoods (which ours is NOT). I need to go back and take a closer look. I hope they extend them throughout the subdivision because the ones near me have been up for 40+ years and need replacing.
Another thing this brought to mind was back a few years we were my mother-in-laws caretakers and went to her place quite often. IHer neightborhood had blue street signs as opposed tot he green ones the rest of the area had. I never needed to know the name of the street that led to her house because it was the first blue street sign and it meant turn right. I made that turns hundreds of times and never knew the name of the street, just that the first blue sign meant 'turn here'.
As a former ink technician, I’m all for doing away with street names and erecting color-coded street signs with no text at all. Then the pizza guy can get lost because he’s on PMS 2935 Street instead of PMS 293 Street and the customer gets their order for free because of the delay. Everyone wins! Except my brother, he’s color blind.
Well, that was a bizarre thing to see, all those different fonts! I'd be curious to learn what the streets department's explanation is.
The colored section on the left of the Green Bay street signs looks "zingy", if you know what I mean, but I'm more used to "zingy" street signs being used to denote unique sections of a municipality, like a historic district or a trendy commercial area. But I suppose one benefit of such signs in Green Bay and Allouez is that at least you'll always know you're within their city limits.
And as far as the street sign typos, my favorite is probably the one my husband showed me on the south side of Chicago, near where he grew up. The sign was meant to alert motorists that they were approaching two close-together railroad crossings. It read " 2 RTACKS". According to my husband, the sign had stood there for years already. One wonders how that mistake had even been made!
At Washington and Pine, the kerning between W and a is standard…if you drop a straight line down from the last part of the W, the a stays behind that line and in its proper place.
At Washington and Cherry, the kerning between W and a is altered, because the a is clearly snuggling up to the W.
Then the inconsistent sequence repeats on the South side, at Doty and Admiral Flatley.
Wow, everything is getting uglier the more we look at it!
Those street signs don't even have a consistent town logo! Some are cropped weirdly, and some don't even have the same shapes. Not super effective "branding."
Personally, I do sort of like towns that do that--so I can tell at a glance whether I'm in the city or a suburb. Most of the time I can tell by color/font/format choices, but a logo and corresponding color scheme make it pretty obvious. When I lived in Denver, for example, I knew what a Denver street sign looked like (they were pretty consistent), and they only put the logo (actually the city flag) on the big intersection signs, but if I wandered over the city border, I could tell if I was in Wheat Ridge or Edgewater and so on because most of their street signs included the town logo.
Are some of those signs a different shade of blue, or is it just the lighting in the picture?
The "Street Sign font" is officially a Standard Alphabet for Traffic Control Devices, but any engineer should know what you're talking about if you call it "Highway Gothic."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Gothic
Yes, I added a note about that shortly after the emailed version went out.
Ha, you can tell I only read the emailed version!
I believe the City of Green Bay makes their own signs. I’m not sure why they have so my different font options as far as lettering goes, but it might explain the inconsistencies shown in my brother’s pics. In Allouez, we ordered our signs from a company in Wisconsin. We had our share of inconsistencies as well, because, as Paul noted, we went from all-cap signs to ones with only the first letter capitalized (these signs are apparently easier to read). We also had some signs with the logo on the left and some without. One of my jobs (which I really enjoyed), was placing new Village of Allouez stickers over the old, faded ones. I usually wasn’t replacing all four stickers on the two signs at once, as the stickers would fade at different rates depending on how much sun each one was exposed to over the years. The older signs we had in Allouez weren’t very reflective, but the newer ones were much more visible at night, as they were sheeted in Hi-Vis (high-visibility) tape. There are three districts in Allouez that were designated as historic districts, and they have brown signs (I think they’re brown, but I’m colorblind). These historic signs are much thinner than the other signs in the village and are not reflective. The village also recently changed from using round, solid posts to four-sided posts that have a bunch of holes on each side. The new posts are designed to break off when struck by a vehicle, which makes them safer, as they do less damage to the vehicle. Speaking of Kalb/Kolb/Colb St., it has always been spelled Kalb since I began working in Allouez in 1999, but there is still confusion as to whether Kalb is a street or avenue. If you look on Google maps or talk to long-time residents, Kalb is apparently an avenue, even though it’s just a half-mile or so long and isn’t particularly fancy. However, according to the official printout I had of every street in the village, Kalb was listed as a street, not an avenue, not a court, not boulevard, not a rue (yes, there are rues in Allouez). I believe there are one or two street signs along Kalb that have “St” as opposed to “Ave.” Years ago I had to put little “Av” or “Ave” stickers over the ones that had “St”, but I believe one still stands. Maybe I’ll go take a drive.
This isn't about fonts, but this brings to mind a 1 mile stretch of ostensibly the same road near my house that has five different names. In the span of that 1 mile, the name changes from Katie Kerr Dr., to Arcadia Ave., to Sams Crossing, to N Arcadia Ave., to Dekalb Industrial Way. And no apostrophe on Sams!
Fun entry today, thanks Norb, and Paul for running it. On the Venn Diagram of my interests and Paul's, street signs is definately in the intersection of the circles, pun defanitely intended. Just yesterday I left my neighborhood the 'back way' due to street repaving and noticed that the streets closer to that end had new street signs. They had some sort of badge or logo, the type you find in historic neighborhoods (which ours is NOT). I need to go back and take a closer look. I hope they extend them throughout the subdivision because the ones near me have been up for 40+ years and need replacing.
Another thing this brought to mind was back a few years we were my mother-in-laws caretakers and went to her place quite often. IHer neightborhood had blue street signs as opposed tot he green ones the rest of the area had. I never needed to know the name of the street that led to her house because it was the first blue street sign and it meant turn right. I made that turns hundreds of times and never knew the name of the street, just that the first blue sign meant 'turn here'.
As a former ink technician, I’m all for doing away with street names and erecting color-coded street signs with no text at all. Then the pizza guy can get lost because he’s on PMS 2935 Street instead of PMS 293 Street and the customer gets their order for free because of the delay. Everyone wins! Except my brother, he’s color blind.
LOL... Norb, there is a Mitch Hedberg joke in there somewhere :-)
Well, that was a bizarre thing to see, all those different fonts! I'd be curious to learn what the streets department's explanation is.
The colored section on the left of the Green Bay street signs looks "zingy", if you know what I mean, but I'm more used to "zingy" street signs being used to denote unique sections of a municipality, like a historic district or a trendy commercial area. But I suppose one benefit of such signs in Green Bay and Allouez is that at least you'll always know you're within their city limits.
And as far as the street sign typos, my favorite is probably the one my husband showed me on the south side of Chicago, near where he grew up. The sign was meant to alert motorists that they were approaching two close-together railroad crossings. It read " 2 RTACKS". According to my husband, the sign had stood there for years already. One wonders how that mistake had even been made!
At Washington and Pine, the kerning between W and a is standard…if you drop a straight line down from the last part of the W, the a stays behind that line and in its proper place.
At Washington and Cherry, the kerning between W and a is altered, because the a is clearly snuggling up to the W.
Then the inconsistent sequence repeats on the South side, at Doty and Admiral Flatley.
Wow, everything is getting uglier the more we look at it!