24-hour turmoil: Walgreens eliminates one of its biggest selling points.
With holiday and work commitments colliding every day, my posts this past month have been unusually slight—shorter and less than pithy. This tendency may have to continue until the year’s end, since it isn’t going to let up all that much. But I still hope to home in on the obscure, the typically overlooked, or—something
Lettering and logos: typographical goofs range from cryptic to charming.
Coming from a family that worked in the advertising industry, I cannot help myself by focusing occasionally on the use of lettering, symbols, or other carefully positioned typographic strategies to help galvanize an advertising logo into a widely successful brand. More importantly, I can’t help but focus on the non-successes—those examples where, even if the
A view from the bridge: not Brooklyn but Woodrow Wilson.
There’s not a whole lot of substance to this article, but it’s hard for me to resist a photo with an evening sky this vivid. There’s obviously a lot going on here: a fiery sunset vying with menacing nimbostratus clouds; the reflection of it all on an expansive river; the evenly spaced lighting that enhances
Restroom logos don’t always stand out. Instead, sometimes they stick out.
I’ve featured far too many articles with the Indianapolis International Airport (IND), outstripping all other airport-related blog posts by a country mile. Or eight runway lengths. But why shouldn’t I cover it? It’s the primary airport of my hometown, so I’ve been there a lot. And it remains one of the newest international airport facilities
Sizzlin’ Cafe: an aged sign that doesn’t stand the test of time.
Many years ago, on this blog, I postulated that, in vibrant downtown areas with lots of small, family-run businesses, an aging, outdated exterior sign might actually be a selling point. Even if the paint is a little chipped or the letters a bit rusty—a tiny bit (not too much!)—a visibly old sign is a tacit
Calloway Cemetery: the once customary (but now quaint) partnering of a church with its burial grounds.
I rarely begin an article with a question—my goal is to end each rumination with more questions than I offer at the beginning—but this time I’m not going to hesitate. Why did the churches of yesteryear place cemeteries in the yards right next door? And what made them stop? Perhaps I feel more confident in
Chambersburg courthouse: when prosperity helps to bridge the old and new. Literally.
It’s hard to assess the exact time measurement of a single generation. How long is it? Fifteen years? Twenty? Usually not more than that. However, it’s intended typically to convey the time necessary for a person to “come of age”—that is, the duration from birth to the point when he/she is making adult decisions, including
Improvements and updates to Dirt: AKA tilling the soil.
Little by little, as I’ve been meeting a goal of at least five blog posts a month, I’ve been making steady upgrades and improvements to this site. And they’ll keep rolling in over the months ahead, as I work to ensure American Dirt remains a chronicle of landscapes and the built environment, as internally consistent
Bike/ped trails and aesthetics: when the infrastructure is part of the scenery, and all of the brand.
Having recently achieved a trip to my fiftieth state (forty-ninth admitted to the union), I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence that one state surpasses all the others at having developed and maintained a consistent brand. I’ll confess that it’s been many, many years since I visited Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Utah, South
Porto-johns and private business: a middle ground between serving customers and the community at large.
At first blush, it’s strange and disarming that a well-kept little retailer with tourist cachet wouldn’t even have a restroom available to customers. But that’s exactly what this sign in the front door of the Ulu Factory in Anchorage is telling us. It really couldn’t be more explicit. The winsome little chalet on the outskirts
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24-hour turmoil: Walgreens eliminates one of its biggest selling points.
With holiday and work commitments colliding every day, my posts this past month have been unusually slight—shorter and less than pithy. This tendency may have to continue until the year’s end, since it
Lettering and logos: typographical goofs range from cryptic to charming.
Coming from a family that worked in the advertising industry, I cannot help myself by focusing occasionally on the use of lettering, symbols, or other carefully positioned typographic strategies to help galvanize an
A view from the bridge: not Brooklyn but Woodrow Wilson.
There’s not a whole lot of substance to this article, but it’s hard for me to resist a photo with an evening sky this vivid. There’s obviously a lot going on here: a
Restroom logos don’t always stand out. Instead, sometimes they stick out.
I’ve featured far too many articles with the Indianapolis International Airport (IND), outstripping all other airport-related blog posts by a country mile. Or eight runway lengths. But why shouldn’t I cover it? It’s
Sizzlin’ Cafe: an aged sign that doesn’t stand the test of time.
Many years ago, on this blog, I postulated that, in vibrant downtown areas with lots of small, family-run businesses, an aging, outdated exterior sign might actually be a selling point. Even if the
Calloway Cemetery: the once customary (but now quaint) partnering of a church with its burial grounds.
I rarely begin an article with a question—my goal is to end each rumination with more questions than I offer at the beginning—but this time I’m not going to hesitate. Why did the
Chambersburg courthouse: when prosperity helps to bridge the old and new. Literally.
It’s hard to assess the exact time measurement of a single generation. How long is it? Fifteen years? Twenty? Usually not more than that. However, it’s intended typically to convey the time necessary
Improvements and updates to Dirt: AKA tilling the soil.
Little by little, as I’ve been meeting a goal of at least five blog posts a month, I’ve been making steady upgrades and improvements to this site. And they’ll keep rolling in over
Bike/ped trails and aesthetics: when the infrastructure is part of the scenery, and all of the brand.
Having recently achieved a trip to my fiftieth state (forty-ninth admitted to the union), I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence that one state surpasses all the others at having
Porto-johns and private business: a middle ground between serving customers and the community at large.
At first blush, it’s strange and disarming that a well-kept little retailer with tourist cachet wouldn’t even have a restroom available to customers. But that’s exactly what this sign in the front door
Recent Comments
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