25 February 2009

The Street Blades They Grow In Cupertino

1955.Cupertino is a California city that needs little introduction to some who might be inclined to read a blog; it's part of the legendary technological heartland known "Silicon Valley"; it's a city of about 50,000 that covers about 10 square miles; and, according to my valued friend Sharon, who sent along the pics you're about to see, it is one of California's most expensive cities.

It also has given its name to the so-called "Cupertino effect", which is the vernacular name for what happens when a spellchecker suggests unappropriate subistituions for misspelt words or words you haven't put in its dictionary. I am indebted, for example, to people like Sharon for giving me her complete Cupertino in helping my build my Street Blade Gallery.

Anyway, here's the pic (by way of explanation, somewhat low-res):




The things I find interesting here is the obviously-non-FWHA font which, at low-res, it's hard to say exactly what it is, though something like Souvenir is hardly out of th question here. The sheer height of the placement is interesting: that would seem particularly driver-unfriendly. The staggering-apart of the street blades themselves is also interesting–of the photos I've so far seen, I'd not seen them spaced that far apart. The blue color is striking but a little dark for me somehow. I don't find that blue makes a very good background color, but that is certainly my opinion.

Thanks very much, Sharon, for sharing your photos with me and my street-blade-obsessed readers.

2 comments:

Snowbrush said...

I never thought about street sign colors, but then I'm not a graphic artist. I think the ones in Eugene are white over green.

Samuel John Klein said...

I think they are too, but it's been years since I've been to the Original Emerald City. I don't imagine they've changed too much.

White type on a green background seem to be a combination that is very popular. It's the one that seems to work best under most conditions; the white contrasts very well with the green which makes the letterforms easier to read.

Though why exactly the preponderance of green I don't know; it could very well just be a fashion.