I had the good fortune to go on a day-long tour of Detroit neighborhood history the other week, and then I took my husband on part of the tour route, followed up the two of us taking his parents along for a ride as well. While my father-in-law drove, I captured a some photos to share here.
One of my favorite aspects of Detroit is the amazing typography and signage. In other cities signs like these went to the junk yard years ago, or the buildings were painted over or demolished. There's also a strong tradition of painting signage on the sides of brick buildings that continues today. I'm certainly not the only one to appreciate the vintage and creative typography that threads through the city. Someone even set up a Facebook fan page for detroit urban typography. There is a good collection of Detroit signage on flickr too.
In addition to the beautiful vintage signs, you'll also occasionally run across funny little nonsensical signs like this one.
3 comments:
What a fun post! I've never really thought about the signage in Detroit being unique but now that you posted these pictures, I feel like I appreciate it more. Thanks! :)
There's a lot of that still in tact in Benton Harbor (I even have a favorite!). You need to come take pics with me! :)
Very cool. Reminds me of the big "Mack 7" sign that use to be at the shopping mall at the corner of 7 Mile and Mack Avenue. It took me years to get use to it not being there.
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