Calligraphic Street Artist

To earn a little money, artists are often seen plying their craft on the streets – think caricaturists, guitar players, even Circ de Soleil in the early days.  Here, on a hot Shanghai day, an expert calligrapher using only a brush and water delights passers-by with elegant but fleeting Chinese… Read more »

This Kind of Signage Must Go

Here’s a store that’s been going out of business for three years, degrading the Pasadena streetscape every day with tacky and quasi-legal signs. 

Don’t go near the art.

Public art has a big challenge: it is in public. This elegant sculpture is either dangerous to the public or the public is dangerous to the art. Either way, the dramatic effect of the granite obelisk base emerging from the plaza is ruined. And the distracting barriers and traffic cones… Read more »

Urban Color No.2

Berlin is often described as a gray or monochrome city, but sparks of color can be seen many places around this emerging European arts center. Here, a palette of cool hues on the window frames makes a striking pattern against the red background of the building. It could almost be… Read more »

Universal Sign Language

You don’t need to read Russian to understand the meaning of this universal message seen posted on a wall in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Signs that really point the way

Often called finger or pointer signs, this familiar sign type can be effective in pedestrian environments. Signs with panels that literally point toward destinations work especially well in places that are not orthogonal such as parks and historic sites. Here, the destination panels are accompanied by actual arrows that ‘pierce’… Read more »

Trashed Signs

Portland’s Alberta Arts District has found a unique way to recycle city signs and add color to the streetscape of one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.