DIY magic
Magic tape must be one of the best office inventions after the post-it. In combination with low-budget DIY needs it becomes even more magic, as I’ve noticed on this door of an Architects studio in Barcelona…
RAL 2005 Leuchtorange
Another beautifully functional colour, RAL 2005 is the standard safety orange for sea rescue boats.
Sculpting graphics
Interesting signage of the Dombauhütte, a centre for the restoration of the dome in Cologne.
Pondicherry shows the way
Some years ago I took this photo in the city of Pondicherry, India. Amazingly low-tech this hand-painted and sculptural road sign shows the way, also by its expressive and truly functional shape. Love it!
Grey is also a colour
Wick Lane / A12 Underpass, East London
Whoever wrote this is right to say that to many places are boring & dull – although a bit of paint, mixed with road dirt, would make this wall look a lot worse then it is now. But it is worthwile thinking about what else would work better…
Manufacturing pride
While driving through the Burgundy region in France I came across this beautiful old factory building in the small town of Génelard.
I really liked the confident, almost out of scale, presence of the signage on the building. On top of that the signage is not an after-thought but completely integrated into the architecture. Compared to many of today’s undistinguished manufacturing halls it also tells the story of an admirable industrial pride.
Chez Jeannette
The more you can do with LED technology the keener I get of the old fashioned neon sign aesthetics. I saw this great neon sign in Paris above the bar of the Café Jeannette, rue du faubourg Saint Denis. I very much like the way it extends into an architectural feature delineating the space of the bar and not limiting itself to just be a sign.
It also made me think of the great Kraftwerk song ‘Neon Lights’:
Shimmering neon lights
And at the fall of night
This city’s made of light…
Guerilla graphics
A very fine example of a public declaration of love, without vandalism…
I’m wondering if I shouldn’t start collecting this type of urban love messages. But surely someone has already published a book on this?
No design sign
When you walk around city centres you have to wonder if we need all that signage and graphic design. Often too slick, too loud and too perfect, over-designed corporate identities and graphics take away the human side of things. Maybe there are too many designers around that need to find work (and not enough courageous businesses).
Accidental map
Within the chaos of one of the many Brussels train stations I found India (and I wasn’t the first one)
- Map of India
Environmental graphics in Madrid
Starting with a fairly neutral checker pattern at street level the grid starts disintegrating the further it moves up. Very rarely this kind of environmental graphics is used on facades these days, although it was common on buildings around the Art Nouveau period across Europe.
- Madrid facade graphics
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