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Watch and Learn: The Anatomy of a Streetsign

By Ray Hu - January 29, 2013

in Video

Apropos of the New York City Department of Transportation's recent announcement of fresh street signs courtesy of Pentagram, a short film by Robert Hooman documents the actual process of fabricating the signs. It's a fascinating inside look at the Maspeth Sign Shop, a 22-person operation that is responsible for signs throughout all five boroughs of the city.

Although there's no sign (so to speak) of the new designs in the video, it dates from about a month ago and was likely shot in the fall, so rest assured the fab shop in Queens is diligently cranking out the latest signage as we speak. (I assume they also produced the signs for the DOT's curbside haiku campaign from just over a year ago, a few of which recently drew criticism on Streetsblog.)

Via Alissa Walker

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KAT

11 years ago

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Thank you for this insightful video. It's so nice to see that these products are being made locally - hyper locally, in this case - and to meet the faces of those that contribute to what seemed like a "faceless" (eg. mass-produced) production.

It would be interesting to know what constitutes "a big job" (per the video), how often and why signs are replaced or updated. I didn't realize that signs were silkscreened - I thought the text was an additional decal. Thanks!
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Tom

11 years ago

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I love seeing short films like this :)
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Aaron

11 years ago

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It's interesting to watch this from the perspective of the differences between the US and Australia.

The key thing is that they are still using solid aluminium sheet. Here in Australia the signage market has almost completely dumped solid aluminium sheet in favour of Alucabond or equivalent product (two thin sheets of aluminium bonded to a plastic core.) It has transformed the market in just the past couple of years and is now making in-roads in to the local government market because of its significant costs savings.
Also, those that still use solid aluminium here will typically cnc router cut the blanks where these guys are using plasma.
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