Monday, October 04, 2010

ALL-CAPS versus lower case lettering for New York City street signs.


New York City will spend $27 million to replace every one of its street signs, more than 250,000 for the purposes of replacing its current ALL CAPS lettering style with signs bearing lower-case lettering.
For font-nerds, N.Y.C. will also be using Clearview, a federally-approved font for highway lettering.
In a time of great governmental fiscal crisis, it hardly seems the time to undertake such a project. Especially as it comes on the heels of the supremely wasteful switch from "Triboro Bridge" to "R.F.K. Bridge."
Some, however, cheer the move to lower-case lettering on aesthetic grounds.  I just got back from San Francisco, still sticking to their unique street-sign style.

2 comments:

Biz said...

NYC is directly contradicting the life lessons of Montell Jordan, who famously went from a lowercase g to a Big G.

coachie said...

That is DAMNING.