Signs

I would like to do something on signage. It is so important and so obvious. The idea is that the letters mean so much. The big question at the mall is who are you? Ti eithos athropos isai? What type person are you?

The letter products are so interesting. Tommy and Polo in particular. Structures. Eddie Bauer.

It seems to me the letters are apotheosized. I know they mean a life style is implied. But I also see a majesty in the letters themselves. Alone, as letters. The idea is that the language has its own life. That is what Stuart Davis says to me and Hopper in his illustrations. Atget obviously. And so much more.

The idea is to look on signs as promises. Ones that can be met. If you just buy something.

The sign is a celebration, as something of what we are as a people. They signify, cement, celebrate... are a picture of who we are and where we are going. That is why the sign and the product name are so crucial. I rail against the nike thing, but also marvel at its vitality. Its verve.

I love to see the heroic on the humble cereal box. Right now I am stumbling toward some vision. It is coming so slow. W

We are so throwaway. These days, only pinup, profound print can save us. Tell us who we are and where we are going. Only print is the saviour. The idea I have is that print and signage are anchors for our vital and frantic culture. These little soldiers are our beacon, anchor, joy and our hope, which is the most important thing of all. The singing signs are such a wonderful thing. As a guide to the future and to our way of being now, then and tomorrow. Title. Now then and tomorrow. They are signs for the future direction.

Here I can use my beloved detergent images. They move me so because I talk to the detergents. I really do as I see them in their own reality, as bright beacons of a cleaner life and a future that is orderly and sane. The things are so definite. They are to help us sanitize and clean. They clean the sink and the thoughts in us both. Up at the mall you see the height of power that the word has. It has to call in the faithful like a preacher does. And there are competing religions. The cyber stuff, the sex stuff, the tradition stuff, the holiday call. Most important the holiday call. The patriots. The food things like the chocolate from Godiva that I like so. I think that is just a nice way to view the world.

What the ten hours of the teevee did for me was crystalize some thinking for me. I now believe that the signage is where to go. With Marsh and Bellow and Stuart Davis. With all the great ones who have known the power of the letter and the idea that the sign or letters imply or express or promise or cajole with. Signs are a promise and we do need promises to guide and motivate our paths. Spend a day at the mall and just look. What do you see. Is the question. What does it mean? The excitement of the mall.

What is a thing? What does it mean at this point in the decade of the period? Where are we headed? How do we do it with some kind of grace? What is good today? What is the proper style and how do we go towards it? What is the future for Bud and for the Gap, and the Limited?

How can a culture like ours move ahead in a unified fashion? Only by taking its signage seriously. It is what butresses and binds us. Only that. A secular culture need use the alphabet for that end to keep us all moving in the right direction. The frantic aspect of the thing is just a show, a facade, a way of being that is cute and funny. Busy, busy, busy. It is chic to be busy. There is so much to do. Why? Because that is what characterizes the successful person. To be busy.

What is the best thing I did? Bat. Plowden..Nothing better. The idea is that the past is the future. We have the power now to create any world we wish. The designers are in place. All we need is courage to recreate our pasts in the present and the future. The idea of Mary's tea room. In Dover. The self-contained village. The mall is the message center for the good life now. In the home and the hearth. The hub of our universes. The idea is that the mall will unify us until we get to the next phase where the mall will not be there any more. What will be there is a pasture with seventeen cows. A farmer and some vegetables. It goes round. The mall will be one huge public space for artists to display. For flea markets, for corporations to have stores and adertising places. For theatre and performance. For Childrens' space. For offices. For this and that. It will be a mixed mall for varied uses. Not just for buying ready-made goods.

If status meant less the whole world will change. Toward something plainer. Less reliance on the ad and the name product, and more on something else. I don't know what.