Sign City
Austin is not what I’d call a particularly beautiful city; although relatively small, it sprawls, like most Texas cities, spreading from the State Capitol into suburban-esque neighborhoods punctuated by strip malls and monster grocery stores. The areas around the city center have the most character, with pockets of historic homes with purple front doors and stretches of the funky boutiques and independent coffee shops you’d expect near a major university. Burnet Road, one of the main drags northwest of downtown, feels delightfully haphazard, with faux-adobe Tex-Mex restaurants next to baroque neon signs advertising Japanese food, all next door to a run-down car dealership or an even shadier business. Once escaped from the downtown grid, the streets meander like rivers, looping this way and that with no apparent method. From a distance, and on a clear day, the skyline is small and bright and sparkling above the Colorado River. A little closer, and you’ll see dozens of people running and walking along the river path, most of them wearing burnt orange.
Despite its happy-go-lucky layout and its suburban stretches, there is something striking and beautiful about Austin: its signs. Every shop, restaurant, cafe, seems to have made their sign as much of a destination as the store itself. Neon, shimmering reflective orbs, unusual fonts, paint thrown over the entire store front. And they weren’t just for self-promotion—the city has absorbed a Tex-Mex sensibility for color, painting doors bright azul y rojo, populating their outdoor seating with bright lime and lemon chairs, concocting mad neon designs. I’ve never seen a city with so many beautiful, wonderful, crazy signs. I’m angry at myself for forgetting my camera on Saturday, which was perfect and sunny and bright, and when Laura and I wandered around shops in the North Loop District, one of the better areas for sign-watching. (The North Loop District is one of those stretches of funky boutiques that pops up in the midst of an otherwise dull stretch of road.) I remembered my camera on Monday—the weather was grayer, so the contrast isn’t as good (also, my camera sucks)—and I took pictures of nearly every sign I came across. Here’s a few.
