A Bad Sign
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It’s taken me a while to get round to blogging this, I took the photo a few weeks ago of a new (to me at least) sign that has sprung up near to the bull in town. It’s quite obviously been paid for by Retail Birmingham (one of the ‘Business Improvement Districts’ that are now forming to spend small wodges of cash on “improving thier districts”, which is convoluted, but fine).
It’s a sign, Brum isn’t well sign-posted — so it should be a good thing, right? No, not really. It’s a bad sign from the perspective of anyone trying to find anything, because:
It lists shops, or rather it doesn’t list shops it lists ‘shopping arcades’ or ‘shopping areas’ — and the ‘shopping area’ (at least those listed) is not how people navigate. It’s an advert for anything that’s “not the bull ring” dressed up as information, it’s advertorial, it’s more street clutter on an already cluttered New St, and it’s crap. At least it tells you where the train stations are (although not Moor St which is nearest).
Birmingham needs good, clear, informative signs, (like these being piloted in London, but better obviously) — not adverts (this is surely only a bit better that paying someone to stand around with a ‘golf sale’ sign). Something I hope the Big City Plan takes on board.
New post out there: A Bad Sign: It?s taken me a while to get round to blogging this, I took t.. http://tinyurl.com/bjd7qw
street signage as advertorial – I’m a bit annoyed http://is.gd/jXu9 too late for #bigcityplan unfortunately
New Street. Go somewhere else!
I saw this last weekend and the sign was already warped. It won’t last long.