Intimidated by new competition

[Texas_Signmaker]

Any community should have a sign code, but one that is sensible and not so restrictive that it makes it hardly worth bothering to put up any signs at all.

We have a sign code in my town. It has limits on the numbers of signs a business can install on its site as well as the usual limits on height and some square footage limits. Electric signs have to be wired to National Electric Code standards and be listed through UL or a similar authority. But a business can still install a big street sign, neon on the building or other things if he wants to do so (as long as the signs follow the rules).

The codes I speak of pretty much ban entire categories of signs. For example, LED "jumbotron" variable message centers are now illegal to install in Edmond, OK. Neon is outlawed in many places. Many of these codes reduce street signs to small, ground mounted monuments -if they're allowed at all. Nevertheless it's impossible to legislate good taste. Ugly signs can be small, non-lighted and ground mounted or stuck on the building.

One thing I do like in these "upscale" zones where a lot of the restrictive sign codes are going into place: they're burying all the power lines, phone lines, cable TV lines, etc all under ground. It does look pretty nice when all those power poles and overhead lines are removed. They don't have to get rid of signs in the process though. Most of the power for our street signs comes in from the ground anyway.

Maybe cause I'm not in the big pylon sign-pole business I think I disagree. I really prefer the restrictions to ground level monuments, makes my jobs a little more comfortable! It visually makes a huge difference in the feel of a town. Every time I leave Frisco I'm reminded of how I enjoy our city's restrictive codes. I don't think it's the death of retail though, I can read the monuments easier then looking 50 ft in the air. I guess for the people driving down the interstate they wouldn't know that there are Home Depot or fast food joints at the next exit...but then again that's what those blue highway signs and Google Maps are for.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Every time I leave Frisco I'm reminded of how I enjoy our city's restrictive codes.

I thought Plano was the same way (my home town, but haven't lived there since '93), has that changed?

I don't think it's the death of retail though

It may contribute, but there are other things that I would think of as being more "damning" then that to the death of the traditional retail.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I thought Plano was the same way (my home town, but haven't lived there since '93), has that changed?

I think in some areas. The parts of Plano that border Frisco are pylon-less...but over off 75 it's those typical big highway signs.

 

[Bobby H]

The pylon signs and high rise signs are necessary next to freeways, especially the ones in Texas, because absolutely no one is going to be able to read some dinky tombstone-sized thing by the curb from several hundred feet away while driving 70mph. A bunch of these freeways have ROW widths of more than 400 feet. That's from one edge of the frontage road across the freeway to the frontage road on the other side.

Maybe cause I'm not in the big pylon sign-pole business I think I disagree. I really prefer the restrictions to ground level monuments, makes my jobs a little more comfortable! It visually makes a huge difference in the feel of a town. Every time I leave Frisco I'm reminded of how I enjoy our city's restrictive codes. I don't think it's the death of retail though, I can read the monuments easier then looking 50 ft in the air. I guess for the people driving down the interstate they wouldn't know that there are Home Depot or fast food joints at the next exit...but then again that's what those blue highway signs and Google Maps are for.

Um, no. The blue highway signs do not cover the purpose of store front signage. And if Google Maps is supposed to replace the functions of store front signs then I guess we can all go something else for a living.

The real problem with large pylon signs is too many people working at sign companies SUCK at designing those kinds of signs. And we get non-designer customers who think they're "artists" and want to be involved in the creative process too -eagerly supplying their DIY "logo" for the job. Every child is an artist and every kid gets a gold star. Yay. Compound that with customers doing their sign work on the cheap, even major companies. They put up a big cheap box on a stick.

Large pylon signs can be attractive. I miss the old Holiday Inn signs from the 1970's. Those signs had personality and charm, but were also very common. They had lots of exposed neon and that big chase-light encrusted arrow that wrapped over the whole design. It's an icon I remember from my childhood. The final shot from Poltergeist (1982) has a good shot of one of those signs. Those classic Holiday Inn signs are gone now, first replaced with big plain flex face box signs. Now the newer signs have the same architectural yet boxy design you would see in an auto dealership sign. Curved metal cladding on the cabinet and pylon cover. Clean, but corporate looking. Most sign shops can't even build corporate looking signs like that.