…or is that “Sign of The Helvetica Neue?”

I’ve been trying not to mention it since yesterday, actually since I saw the mockups weeks ago, but I can no longer stay silent. And I’m hoping you all can’t stay silent either.

The D-E-T-R-O-I-T sign on eastbound I-94 stinks. That is what design by committee looks like. That sign falls squarely in the “My Kid Could Do That” category. Where the Avatar logo designer at least skimmed through the font list, whoever’s nephew “designed” this sign just went “Helvetica Neue Bold”…aaaaaaand done. No neurons were harmed, much less awakened, in creating this outdoor sign. At least whoever’s responsible didn’t pick Arial.

I’m not even going to mention that green outline.

Tell me, from what hotel did they steal those letters from?

Okay, !detroit. Your turn. Go on. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m right. Tell me what you think about this horribly bland, imagination-less outdoor signage, a tribute to nothing.

  • @Telodzrum
    1•7 months ago

    The nicest thing I can say about this is that it’s better than Sterling Heights’s Golden Butthole.

    • @[email protected]OP
      1•7 months ago

      Call-Me-Argumentative-If-You-Must Dept.:

      • In defense of Metz’s subsequently-named “The Halo,” well, the snide will be snidely. The giant ring recalls nothing of an anus except to all who have their heads firmly entrenched in one, usually their own.

      • On the contrary, while “The Halo” still more “creative” and dynamic than Detroit’s plastic letters robbed repurposed from disused motels, it’s something that Project Mayhem would have sabotaged.

    • @[email protected]OP
      2•7 months ago

      Actually, yes. This town is plastered with great art, from the sanctioned to the “otherwise.” We have the number one art museum[1] in this nation of cowboys! And yet this all-weather[2] design-by-committee waste of resources sits along I-94.

      Seriously…could they not have picked something more…dynamic? Something less pedestrian?

      Re: “half-assed”: maybe you’re letting your moderating of [email protected] color your thinking…? *ducks* It’s a joke! I KID! I KID!!!

      EDIT: I meant nothing against your moderating…just that fumble-at-the-10y-line team of yours! 🤣

      1. https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/travel/best-art-museum-2024/ ↩︎

      2. remains to be seen… 🤔 ↩︎

        • @[email protected]OP
          1•7 months ago

          I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean. Are you referring to the recent murals created by non-native artists? Although I wholeheartedly believe Detroit artists were out and out snubbed and should have been considered long before the controversial outsourcing happened, surely you can’t say the resultant works are of a substandard nature. And in any case, I don’t think the city’s coughed up the cash yet!

          Regarding city-funded work, what about the Isamu Noguchi modernist installations at Hart Plaza? Marshall Fredericks’ The Spirit of Detroit? I’ll concede these aren’t the freshest of examples.

          Then there’s always the privately-funded work such as the Stellantis Detroit Assembly Complex – Mack plant murals by world-reknown muralist, Flint native and Detroit transplant Dr Hubert Massey.

          Then there’s my all-time favorite, “The Fist”.

          Pardon the pun but I believe you’re painting too negatively a picture of Detroit’s municipally-funded art…excluding the second-hand plastic letters along I-94. I don’t want to “wear out my welcome” regarding this debate (I’m the one doing most of the talking!) so I’ll knock it off now. 😁 👍