{"id":52802,"date":"2015-09-23T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=52802"},"modified":"2015-09-23T16:00:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T20:00:02","slug":"toronto-sign-life-imitates-graphic-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/09\/23\/toronto-sign-life-imitates-graphic-design\/","title":{"rendered":"The TORONTO sign: How life imitates graphic design"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the delight of many, it was recently announced that the TORONTO\u00a0sign in Nathan Phillips Square\u00a0will remain<\/a>\u00a0in front of City Hall until its structural expiry date of 2016, when it will be replaced<\/a> by a more sturdy\u00a0set of letters.<\/p>\n

Installed as part of the Pan Am Games, the sign is one of the most popular legacies of the event. It is a highly photogenic addition to City Hall, offering the\u00a0perfect\u00a0spot for selfies amongst the sign’s many Ts Rs and Os.<\/p>\n

The old saying is that “life imitates art” \u2014 but with the immense popularity of the\u00a0TORONTO sign, it might be more accurate to say that these days, “life imitates graphic design.”<\/p>\n

The dominance\u00a0of graphic design culture \u2014 researchers now estimate we’re exposed to 5,000 ads per day<\/a>, and the number of graphic designers in Canada\u00a0has increased rapidly<\/a>\u00a0over the last few years \u2014 has reached its apotheosis in the 3D TORONTO sign. Photos of Nathan Phillips Square and City Hall now automatically take on the look and feel of\u00a0a highly designed poster.<\/p>\n

The TORONTO sign is part of a global trend of huge letters in prominent public space. It’s most direct precedent is the\u00a0I amsterdam<\/a> sign. Situated\u00a0behind Amsterdam’s\u00a0Rijksmuseum since 2005, friends visiting the Netherlands are\u00a0almost guaranteed to post photos of themselves climbing the iconic red and white letters. The\u00a0ONLY LYON sign followed in 2010 and the BUDAPEST sign<\/a> in 2014. It was only a matter of time that big font\u00a0would come to Toronto.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ONLY_LYON_Place_Bellecour\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Budapest<\/a><\/p>\n

This isn’t the first time art has affected landscape. Big, wooded parks with meandering pathways like High Park in Toronto, Central Park in Manhattan, and Mount Royal Park in Montreal, were all inspired<\/a> by Romantic landscape paintings<\/a> of the late 18th century. Spreading as a park format worldwide (most major North American cities have an equivalent), these pastoral parks are a reflection of what\u00a0people in burgeoning industrial cities needed from\u00a0their landscapes \u2014 and how they idealized them.<\/p>\n

But the\u00a0blending of graphic design and landscape architecture\u00a0is evidence of a\u00a0new kind of relationship we’ve developed with our civic spaces. No longer pastoral retreats \u00e0 la High Park, with our smartphone cameras always close at hand,\u00a0a landscape must be striking\u00a0and photographable to make an impact.\u00a0And giant, Instagram-able letters are the most effective way to communicate\u00a0the core of most messages on social media \u2014 “I was here.”<\/p>\n

top photo by Sam Javanrouh<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Daniel is the Urban Geographer. Check out his website<\/a>, and say hello on Twitter<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To the delight of many, it was recently announced that the TORONTO\u00a0sign in Nathan Phillips Square\u00a0will remain\u00a0in front of City Hall until its structural expiry date of 2016, when it will be replaced by a more sturdy\u00a0set of letters. Installed as part of the Pan Am Games, the sign is one of the most popularContinue reading “The TORONTO sign: How life imitates graphic design”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8085,"featured_media":52892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-urban-design"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe TORONTO sign: How life imitates graphic design - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/09\/23\/toronto-sign-life-imitates-graphic-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The TORONTO sign: How life imitates graphic design - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To the delight of many, it was recently announced that the TORONTO\u00a0sign in Nathan Phillips Square\u00a0will remain\u00a0in front of City Hall until its structural expiry date of 2016, when it will be replaced by a more sturdy\u00a0set of letters. 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