Alphabet Road Trip | the blog of Iskra Design

You Must Be This Tall

May 27, 2009 | Signs I Like

Are you troubled by lack of self-esteem? Do signs like this make it worse? This terse command from the now-defunct Coney Island roller coaster kind of rubs in the fact of too-shortness. That horizontal line could indicate a height to aspire to…or it could represent you flattened by a Humvee on a remote highway.  And notice how "you" is the smallest word and placed on a dubious curve that nearly dumps you off this bumper car of a sentence before it is spoken.

Here is another sign with a slightly more ambiguous command. Shot in lyrical light, it begins my list of  "do nots" or offers me "Do-nuts." Time itself is the lettering artist.

From Ernest Hilsenberg, sculptor and ceramic artist.

Matamoros not Metamorphose

May 5, 2009 | Signs I Like

When I encountered this street sign I was lost on a winding road in Mexico. I decided the sign meant metamorphose, which lead me to thinking of butterflies, and one appeared shortly in the hibiscus on the stair. For years I have thought fondly of the butterfly sign that made me stop and take a deep breath and orient myself.  Only now do I come to find this word means braggart or boaster. Did some rude fellow knock the sign from its nail while waving his hands? Did someone intentionally break this tile as a form of expressive lettering, creating a deliberate tension between the word's meaning and its shattered appearance? Or is it just one more Pottery Barn contrivance masquerading as authenticity? As someone who has tried and failed to master the long floppy lettering brush I admire the technique here, and I love those blue flowers.