SIGN: Stop

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The ubiquitous stop sign, seen everywhere, telling us all to stop, look around, and take a moment to reflect on how how little real driving we do, compared to sitting at various traffic control devices.

In this particular area, there seems to be a stop sign every hundred feet, no kidding. Someone went a bit crazy with the signage.

If nothing else, they remind me of this old song from Buffalo Springfield.

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

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SIGN: El Burrito Restaurant

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The simple, slanted sans serif font advertising the El Burrito restaurant. Why do most all signs have to be red?

Obviously, the bold, slanted letters are an indication of the bold, fast, and tasty Mexican food that awaits inside. The little sombrero is a nice touch. I like this little place, good food.

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SIGN: Kyoto Japanese Restaurant

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A small sign above the door tells folks walking down this sidewalk that this is the door that leads to the Kyoto Japanese Restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant left here for a new location about a quarter mile up the road, so if you looked in through the glass, you would find an empty space. But the sign lives on, even though the restaurant is long gone.

All throughout the strip mall, it seems the owner/manager put these up for the benefit of shoppers. Further down you can see a sign for an optical store, that's been gone from that space for years. Sadly, there is only one orignal tennet left, a dry cleaners.

Neat thing about this Kyoto sign is that it's obviously using a sans serif font, but notice how they did their best to fit the entire name on one small sign. Big, widely spaced letters are used for "Kyoto", but the lettering for "Japanese Restaurant" are very narrow and squished together.

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SIGN: Pull

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Here's one of those simple litte signs you see on doors all the time, giving you a very simple, direct, one word instruction as to what to do: PULL!

The font is as simple as can be, a sans-serif, all-caps font done in gold lettering on a black background, for a bit of class. But instead of the typical left-right horizontal orientation of the letters, the sign maker opted for a vertical interpretation, which gives this simple instruction a bit of uniqueness. Just think: how often do you ever see anything with the letters arranged vertically like this? I bet it's hard for you to think of another one.

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SIGN: L.A. Tan

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Even though there's a scaffold in the way, it's hard to miss the bright red "L.A. Tan" sign on this storefront. The sign was just recently installed, which is probably why the scaffolding is there.

The lettering uses a nice, bold sans serif font, but notice how the letter A's have palm trees embedded in them! A very unique touch, that would make an otherwise simple red sign a bit more dramatic.

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