I really think unified sign ordinances that regulate color are stupid and counterproductive. A unified sign ordinance has many provisions, some of which may even be useful. In my experince with them as a municipal planner, color restrictions result in really stupid looking and monotonous strip centers.
The professed reason for this--all these laws are theoretically rooted in the "public good" bits of the Constitution--is that the public saftey is ensured by reducing visual clutter on roadways.
Uh....we are visual creatures, and I can recognize a logo as much by it's color combination as it's shape. When I'm zooming past the strip centers in someplace I've never been, it-is-in-the-rest-of-the-public's-good that I not have to mentally translate a brown on beige Burger King sign. Dammit, I *know* what colors a Burger King sign are, and Burger King probably spent millions of dollars on design firms and focus groups to get the hues of orange and red just right. So some stupid, two-bit burgh is going to take all that research and throw it out the window, and I now I can't just catch it in my peripheral vision, but will have to take my eyes and mind off the road to figure out if I can pull in there to pee and get a vanilla shake.
What's worse, these regulations were meant to create a more pleasing visual environment. Instead, they add to an already faceless and drab suburban landscape. It's like Stalinist architecture, only one story tall. Think about it, vast, treeless parking lots, boxy, windowless buildings, and everything the same color. East Berlin's Alexanderplatz on the scale of the motor vehicle.
The medieval marketplace was a vibrant cacaphony of colors and vendors. The strip mall is it's current, vehicle based surrogate. The sameness imposed by these regulations is detrimental to the communities it professeses to protect. Legislating middle class tastes is just wrong, and it has nothing to do with public saftey whatsoever. I say regulate the crap out of size and height, even lighting, but let them have the colors they want. It's better for me to find what I am looking for quickly and safely from behind the steering wheel. It's better for the neighborhood, because now they have more lively and better kept signs in their shopping center (no out of date colors or custom orders for franchisees). Lastly, it's better for the municipal staff and taxpayers because they won't waste time on it!
The professed reason for this--all these laws are theoretically rooted in the "public good" bits of the Constitution--is that the public saftey is ensured by reducing visual clutter on roadways.
Uh....we are visual creatures, and I can recognize a logo as much by it's color combination as it's shape. When I'm zooming past the strip centers in someplace I've never been, it-is-in-the-rest-of-the-public's-good that I not have to mentally translate a brown on beige Burger King sign. Dammit, I *know* what colors a Burger King sign are, and Burger King probably spent millions of dollars on design firms and focus groups to get the hues of orange and red just right. So some stupid, two-bit burgh is going to take all that research and throw it out the window, and I now I can't just catch it in my peripheral vision, but will have to take my eyes and mind off the road to figure out if I can pull in there to pee and get a vanilla shake.
What's worse, these regulations were meant to create a more pleasing visual environment. Instead, they add to an already faceless and drab suburban landscape. It's like Stalinist architecture, only one story tall. Think about it, vast, treeless parking lots, boxy, windowless buildings, and everything the same color. East Berlin's Alexanderplatz on the scale of the motor vehicle.
The medieval marketplace was a vibrant cacaphony of colors and vendors. The strip mall is it's current, vehicle based surrogate. The sameness imposed by these regulations is detrimental to the communities it professeses to protect. Legislating middle class tastes is just wrong, and it has nothing to do with public saftey whatsoever. I say regulate the crap out of size and height, even lighting, but let them have the colors they want. It's better for me to find what I am looking for quickly and safely from behind the steering wheel. It's better for the neighborhood, because now they have more lively and better kept signs in their shopping center (no out of date colors or custom orders for franchisees). Lastly, it's better for the municipal staff and taxpayers because they won't waste time on it!
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