UPDATE: The Farine Five Roses sign is still standing. It's also been switched on more or less 24 hours a day for the past few weeks. My friends in the sign business tell me this won't do any damage to the sign, regardless of its size or the local climate. So, whoever - or whatever - is responsible for turning the sign on and off has clearly been bypassed. Better on than off, I think.
NEWS: For some time now, as part of the Logo Cities project, we've been collecting stories from people about signs. One person told how she used the FFR sign to find her way home; more than one person has briefly mistaken the Desjardins sign for the moon. If you or anyone you know has a story about a high-rise sign (maybe you know someone who used to live in the shadow of FFR; or remembers driving by the Bowmac sign in Vancouver; or, wept when they changed the logo on top of the PanAm building to MetLife) you can now contribute your story via voicemail. Just call (514) 848-2424, extension 5898. You'll have up to three minutes to leave a message.
This is clearly a different kind of engagement with signs, but it's all part of our efforts to underscore the importance of these monsters in city life, often above and beyond their function as promotional beacons. Please help us to spread the word. We will be collecting Sign Stories for the next few months and may play the best ones in public (eg on the radio; on a newly designed logocities website) as the project progresses.
