Building an advertising sign in 1938


As I was looking through the Duke University site ROAD (Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions), my eye was caught by a photo of some men working on building an advertising sign, and I thought that you might like taking a look.

I've always been a project person, going back to when I was a little kid, making messes in the basement with my paint set, or something. And I always recognize these type of people, who seem to be kind of artists, and kind of construction workers. And like most people who do this type of work, they're taken for granted, as very few people have any idea what goes on "behind the scenes". This will just be a billboard for whiskey. But I see so much more, and I want to look around.

First of all, unless they're applied something like clear shellac, this is a posed photo.



I can almost hear the photographer telling them to look as if they're doing something. That is, except for the guys in the background, who probably thought that they wouldn't be in the picture. And I'm no expert on old signage, but I'd say that all of those holes will have light bulbs, and will flash in a controlled way. It must have taken a fair amount of electrical expertise to get it all right!

I don't know what the final product looked like, but like I say, I suppose if I saw it I would just see an ad for whiskey. And of course I'd have no idea how gigantic it was, because it would be way up there, and I'd be way down there, probably walking.

Advertising art is like so many things that surround us all of the time, we're meant to see the message, and give no thought to the artistry, and craft. And it tends to be so good so much of the time that the only time we comment on it is when it's wrong, like when a billboard is hung up upside-down, or a bulb burns out and makes a sign read funny.

Art, and craft, are not limited to museums, they are everywhere if you take the time to look, even in whiskey ads.
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