City changing street sign style
I’ve been noticing the ugly new street signs around town for the last year or two, but this was the first chance I had to actually compare the old style (top) with the new style (bottom).
It’s not just that the new font is ugly; it’s that the text is not even centered. And I’ve seen that on other new-style signs too. What’s up with that?
Be thankful these abominations never caught on. A few of those went up in the Richmond maybe a decade ago; thank gods they didn’t expand beyond that.
(Not to mention the fact that that is 21st AVE, St.)
seems like a less readable font for sure. Kind of spread out widthwise. Although it’s hard to tell from a pic.
I think it’s the same font, but they’re digitally stretching the type to (sort of) fill the space rather than using it centered at its normal set width. It’s most noticeable on short street names like NOE. It looks like crap, but that’s what happens when you rely on jail labor rather than hiring a typographer.
Go down the street to Treat and Precita, you’ll see they stamped "Treat St" into the concrete instead of the real street name, "Treat Ave". Sadly, there are no craftsmen working on signage in San Francisco. Witness the crappy stencil and spray paint "signs" in most of the public parks. Look at the muni signage on the side of telephone poles.
Maybe SF should outsource the sign shop to some suburban town, their signs look much, much better!