Do You Like New Street Signs?

[DavidJamesTO]

Why couldn't they have made the old 'acorn' signs for higher traffic areas and made simple ones (I'm thinking Joe Ontario flat piece of aluminum) for the rest of the areas?

Out on the fringes of Etobicoke along Lake Shore Road (before it becomes Lake Shore Boulevard), they have an interesting compromise; blue aluminum signs that have the shape of the acorn signs, but with no decoration or depth. Once they get into Long Branch east of the streetcar loop, they start the BIA signs with decoration on them. Would have been worth thinking about.

 

[syn]

When it comes to the basic identifiers of a city (signage, furniture, branding etc.) this city is an absolute mess.

I understand your frustration, but in my mind the basic identifiers of a city are it's architecture, the spaces between the buildings like plazas and sidewalks and squares, and physical setting. When I think of Vancouver, I think of glassy towers and mountains. When I think of Sao Paulo, I think of highrise buildings chock-a-block to each other and Oscar Niemeyer. I am hard-pressed to remember much about the street signs or "furniture" from most places I've been. I've also, almost never, heard anyone comment after travelling to these places, "they had nice street signs". It's not that stuff like this is unimportant, it's just a whole lot less important than almost anything else.

Those are identifiers too of course, but I'm referring to ones the city has almost exclusive control over. Design is in the details. While no one may specifically remember things like street signs, they help form a sense of place and enhance the design of a city whether one realizes it or not. I'd also say some of these details are remembered - many around the world are aware of the London transit logo, the red phone booths, etc.

I'm sure not many people visiting Toronto would remember cracks in the sidewalk or asphalt-filled areas of it - but it can still make a difference in one's overall impression.

 

[Urban Shocker]

I agree. We have a horrible amount of visual layering in this city, and the cumulative effect doesn't leave a good impression. It was only a few years ago we got the new, rather tinny and cheapened versions of the black-on-white "acorn" street signs, and now these blue things appear. BIAs try to call the shots in much public realm design now, and the results vary depending on how much money they have to spend, how twee their sense of design is, and the extent to which they can sometimes cajole the City into putting up matching funds for their efforts. The City appears to see the extent of their involvement in street furniture design as getting as many objects with advertising space onto our sidewalks and into our parks as possible.

 

[syn]

I agree. We have a horrible amount of visual layering in this city, and the cumulative effect doesn't leave a good impression. It was only a few years ago we got the new, rather tinny and cheapened versions of the black-on-white "acorn" street signs, and now these blue things appear. BIAs try to call the shots in much public realm design now, and the results vary depending on how much money they have to spend, how twee their sense of design is, and the extent to which they can sometimes cajole the City into putting up matching funds for their efforts. The City appears to see the extent of their involvement in street furniture design as getting as many objects with advertising space onto our sidewalks and into our parks as possible.

Yes, quite depressing isn't it? The sad thing is they could probably get a firm to come up with much more practical, well designed and attractive pieces than the likes of Astral, etc.

Toronto needs to have a major overhaul in this regard with the true creative minds in the city...not the corporate clowns who came up with stuff like the "Toronto Unlimited" campaign.

 

[Urban Shocker]

So true, syn. The garbage bins are the worst of the new furniture designs, I think ( inoperable to disabled people from the get-go, with faulty mechanisms that are gradually rendering them useless for the rest of us ).

One only needs to descend into the nightmarish typographical hell that lays in wait beneath the great hall of Union Station to see how badly we can be let down by poor design. A garish screaming match of signage like that isn't a positive identifier of anything, nor can it leave visitors with a positive impression of Toronto.

I've often thought we need Bad Design flying squads, with sweeping powers, to swoop in an correct problems like that! Maybe a hotline for the public to call.

 

[299 bloor call control.]

I was in Guangzhou during my trip to Asia this past month and I really liked the idea of adding simple directions on their street signs, showing the next block and in what direction you're traveling:

 

[Nebakenezer]

They look london-ish or hong kong-ish, even though I can't remember what the street signs look like over there.

 

[christiesplits]

I cannot tell you how disheartened I was driving through suburban Montreal as a teen and realizing that the white acorn signs were not a distinct Toronto design.

I think its a step forward to have a quintessential "Toronto design," even if its not the most brilliantly crafted sign.

 

[salvius]

I cannot tell you how disheartened I was driving through suburban Montreal as a teen and realizing that the white acorn signs were not a distinct Toronto design.

I think its a step forward to have a quintessential "Toronto design," even if its not the most brilliantly crafted sign.

If creating a unique identity means crafting these types of designs, then I say we better scrap the whole idea and plagiarize whatever we can from cities that seem to have better ideas. Although, I can see the new blue signs fitting in perfectly well in a nondescript suburb somewhere in North Carolina. To wit, I see nothing uniquely 'Toronto' in these signs, unless ugliness is Toronto's unique characteristic.

 

[Dilla]

The new signs aren't great. It's like the a non-joke version of this:

http://usedwigs.com/video-stop-sign-designed-by-committee/

EDIT: After watching that video for the first time in a long time, I just now realized that there's a shot of Toronto used at the end. heh.

 

[wyliepoon]

Although, I can see the new blue signs fitting in perfectly well in a nondescript suburb somewhere in North Carolina. To wit, I see nothing uniquely 'Toronto' in these signs, unless ugliness is Toronto's unique characteristic.

Since you brought up the US, it seems as though Toronto is the only city where a change of street signs has created such an uproar. American cities don't seem to take much thought into street sign designs, even cities that normally we would consider to be at the forefront of urban design such as Chicago or New York.

 

[ganjavih]

Maybe because those signs don't look like cheap and goofy toys.

 

[syn]

Maybe because those signs don't look like cheap and goofy toys.

And the poles are the same.

 

[TonyV]

Very unfortunate, these new street signs. I took a walk around the 'hood just now, and beheld the signs where two Cabbagetown laneways intersect .. Rawlings and Sackville Place. The Rawlings sign is the old one, the Sackville Place sign is the new one. You can see the difference so easily. The older one has substance and some taste, the new one is all flimsiness, and is very cheap looking.

I've said it all before, no one is standing guard for our city with respect to the public realm. It's time to stop shopping in the bargain basement.

 

[Raptorzzs]

They're ok, but I'm almost certain there's something missing to them.