Neons. On preserving the endangered type.

They say that good design doesn’t make itself visible, so you don’t notice it, whereas you will immediately notice bad design. I’ve been wondering if the same applies to typography in public spaces, i.e. whether the well-designed signs are indeed so invisible (the fact that the bad ones are only too visible, is something I have no doubts about. In my own city, Warsaw, the clutter of awful posters, ads and shops signs is frequently subject of protests, and I myself signed a campaign against illegal billboards marring the city centre (there’s an interesting article about how uncontrolled advertising turns the city into a caricature). Despite the fact that so many people graduate from graphic design courses each year, and that the internet provides access to examples of beautiful design, there is still a shortage of good typography in public spaces.

Furthermore, just as hand-painted signs got replaced with much cheaper vinyl-cut ones (something I wrote about a while ago), the same process is happening to traditional neon signs. Storefront is therefore becoming increasingly standardised, family run businesses are packing up, and the distinctive signage of the past century is slowly disappearing from cities. This sad process doesn’t go entirely unnoticed though, for there are many typography fans, who are making efforts to at least preserve the old signs which would otherwise end up in a skip, by collecting them, restoring and turning into a collection. Two of these places I’ve recently visited were Neon Museum in Warsaw (which is part of Top 10 on Trip Advisor) and Buc