28 November 2006

Simon's new signs

| johnboy
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It’s a double bonus Simon day today!

The very first of the new signs renaming good old civic “City Centre” has been erected on Northbourne Avenue. Simon has announced it with some fanfare:

“The Canberra Central identification signs are part of an ongoing signage package to define the City and make it easier for people to find their way around… This package includes new street name signs, information pillars and other directional signage… Mr Corbell said a total of five internally lit and sculpted identification signs shaped to form an arrow would be installed in the Northbourne Avenue median strip, with each arrow directing visitors to the main commercial area of the City.

Sounds impressive eh? Well we’ve been down to take a look:

Hmmm…

Interesting that Simon’s talking about “Canberra Central”, the sign’s talking about “City Centre”, and most people who live here are hanging grimly on to dear old Civic (that mythical place where we could park to go shopping).

Meanwhile this is part of a broader plan:

“These City entry signs, the new street name signs and a range of paving treatments, fittings and furnishings will be given a consistent styling approach throughout the City centre through the proposed manual”

So who was the bright spark who decided our “consistent styling approach” would be chunky and poo brown?

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Ok, I admit it – when I moved here it took me ages to realise people were talking about Canberra City when they said “civic”. I thought it was a video rental shop, or maybe a nightclub…

it is a pissweak attempt. as the australian city with the highest alleged iq, we can, nay should to better. a call out to our local graf artists…improve it for us all.

Besides City Central woul dnot be a cool palindrome.

That font is too tight to read from a distance. ie., Curves are straightened, shapes are shrunk. Plus it is at an unnatural slant to worsen the effect.

The colours are also drab and don’t complement.

That’s your graphic design analysis right there Smackbang.

These signs pose grave dangers to me and my mates when we tend to go off-road late on Friday nights.

It’s interesting that, in the bottom right of the photo. you can see the pre-existing ‘City Centre’ sign – if any small smidgen of common sense is applied that’ll be left there.

As to the main sign (if you can call it that), perhaps someone can print of this thread and make into into a petition to present to The Brave Leader to get the monstrosity removed and/or prevent any more of the hideous things being put up.

An it IS Civic, nothing else.

Absent Diane3:50 pm 29 Nov 06

yes it does sound like a train station… monorail/lightrail station perhaps? ;p

Canberra City was named Civic for a reason. It had to do with it being the “heart” of Govt in Australia (have to recheck source, going on memory here) so they’ve changed the name without thinking about why it is the way it is.

Non_Sequitur3:39 pm 29 Nov 06

The whole ‘civic – canberra central’ thing is just an ego raising exercise. I’m convinced that efforts like this (and don’t lets get started on the aboretum)are simply plaque syndrome exercises to get their imprint on the city. These guys just want to be able to sit in the old peoples home in 40 years and tell the nurses ( Lyneham High graduates still wearing their hotpants) that “back in the old days, we used to call canberra central, civic – well we did, till I changed it!” Its all about building monuments to themselves.

If they want to change the name from Civic. Just leave it as City not Canberra Central thats just stupid. Unless he plans to have train station in Civic then it could called Canberra Central?

There are issues with the data centre in Sydney hosting our images at the moment.

Which just goes to show home hosting isn’t wrong all the time.

At lest my building got a cameo in th eabove picture which seems to have disappeared

who made ths signs?
Someone’s brother’s mother’s best mate who donates to the alp?
why spend $1 on a stapler when u can spend $1000?

…useless c#nts!

Absent Diane1:09 pm 29 Nov 06

Haven;t you heard Danman.. they are changing Coolo to Westfield Weston…

You know the irony of the situation (shopping centre names) is that while yes I detest westfield woden, belco et al… but when it comes down to it.. I find shopping centres amongst the things I loathe most in life (eggs being the thing I loathe the most, followed by religion, followed by tinned asparagus, then ignorance and coming in at number 5 is shopping malls ignorance).. but i still care about the name. Sense much it does not make.

Absent Diane1:06 pm 29 Nov 06

Haven;t you heard Danman.. they are changing Coolo to Westfield Weston…

You know the irony of the situation (shopping centre names) is that while yes I detest westfield woden, belco et al… but when it comes down to it.. I find shopping centres amongst the things I loathe most in life (eggs being the thing I loathe the most, followed by religion, followed by tinned asparagus, then ignorance and coming in at number 5 is shopping malls ignorance).. but i still care about the name. Sense much it does not make.

what about Monaro Mall ?

Cool-o court will always be cool-o court to me

Civic it may always have been and always will, but the official name has never been Civic. You can even see part of one of the old plain signs saying “CITY CENTRE” in the background of that photo.

Yep, CIVIC forever.

And Westfield can get knotted too…it will always be Woden Plaza.

That font looks very Sydney 2000.

Those signs are ugly and useless, a lot like the ACT government.

ugh – good on you for choosing a font/colour combination that cannot be seen while driving.

blingblingbears11:50 am 29 Nov 06

what a stupid and ugly sign…. poo brown??? ugh

and whats with the other “sculpture” thing in the middle of northborne ave? I saw it this morning and it looks like a hollow swirly snail… wtf?

what stupid wastes of money… someone needs to shove a broom stick up Simon’s arse

and the name CIVIC will never change!

Indeed, it’s bloody well Civic. I don’t mind the signs themselves, but the name of the place is Civic. And if they want to rename it could they at least be somewhat consistant about it.

Non_Sequitur10:27 am 29 Nov 06

Surely this was made for tourists, but that font barely looks legible for fluent readers of English. Also does it light up at night? otherwise that blue on brown is just going to be bloody hard to see at any time other than midday. Don’t you just love the priorities our town council has? A nice clear ordinary sign that conforms to other road and inforamtion signs just wouldn’t do would it?

i can’t wait till someone colours in the blank arrows on the other side of the graphics.

gods, this is so ugly.

it looks like an upright turd

Civic, is a funny little anachronism.

On Walter Burley Griffin’s original plans for Canberra he mapped out a zone and called it “Civic Area” (or something like that).

He didn’t mean it to become a name, just to be a description. But it stuck, and I don’t know where Simon thinks he can get off changing 90 years of our cultural heritage just to boost the marketability of his QIC buddies shopping mall.

i’d love for someone with a background in graphic design to properly critique this sign and its layout, because i think it’s shit but not having the graphic design-type knowledge i can’t really express very well why that is:
– why are the blue squares with the “pictograms” so small, and why do they sit inside those bigger white squares? that’s just unnecessary complication.
– why are the words “City Centre” written in a font and in such a way (vertically) that makes them so hard to read? Surely clarity should have been the number 1 design principle in this sign?
– the Canberra Central logo is a joke. For one thing, it is caled Civic by all and sundry – not “Canberra Central” (that just sounds like “Canberra Centre” by another name). For another, why does Canberra Central (whatever the heck that is) need a logo? And finally, the logo they have come up with is ugly and useless as a logo.

Also, I agree with Miz – what is wrong with words? And yes, I too have sometimes wondered why it is that the signs on the way to the Airport don’t actually indicate “Airport”.

Hmmm…nice to see in this time of budget cutbacks, our fearless leaders are wisely spending our money on crap like this, rather than say keeping schools open, or improving public transport.

On another note – did any other non-locals find it strange having a place called “Civic”? Where I come from, it always use to be the city, or town…this whole civic thing was a new one on me….

by the way the colour is Pantone 160c

I’m not an icon person, I like *words* on signs. I got lost on my first few trips to the airport because I was looking for the word ‘airport’ on a roadside sign! Silly me, it’s all pictures thes days which makes me wonder why we all bothered learning to READ.

I suggest a normal green roadside sign with the words on straight.

And maybe stop calling the Plaza etc ‘town centre’, that really confuses the tourists!

I mean, that’s what Canberra Central refers to.

sexynotsmart9:53 pm 28 Nov 06

What group does the logo (green/yellow/blue) at the top of the sign represent?

what. the. fuck.
remember when canberra was the butt of jokes about pissing our taxes away? this town almost made it into the realm of grudging acceptance as a city with something worthwhile, but our lords of the present seem determined to consolidate canberras place as a laughing stock in the wider australian community.
looks like the olympic torch theme is still going.

Vic Bitterman8:08 pm 28 Nov 06

Sounds like a good idea, decent signage for tourists and those unfamiliar with the area.

But in typical govco style, why spend $200 on normal signs when they can piss $2k of our taxes into oblivion with these awful looking things.

Roll on voting day, I’m sick of my taxes being pissed up the wall by these unaccountable wankers.

barking toad7:46 pm 28 Nov 06

After examining that hippie piece of crap for a while I gathered that it shows directions for:

1. “P” for pissing or parking (hahaha – good luck)
2. dumped shopping trolleys
3. cups and saucers
4. An alien picking ear wax

And if I was pissed and fell over I might have seen City Centre.

But for a tourist driving down N’Bourne Ave, it’s just another lump of nothing in the ground.

took me about 2 minutes to actually find where it said ‘city centre’

also its nice to know that I can go anywhere to get coffee cups 😛

The font is offensive

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