The Pittsburgh Signs Project
Jennifer Baron, Greg Langel, Elizabeth Perry, Mark Stroup (2009)The Pittsburgh Signs Project is a web based collection of images of signs, created by co-directors Jennifer Baron, Greg Langel, Elizabeth Perry and Mark Stroup, that documents the visual culture of Western Pennsylvania and serves as a “launch pad” for dialogues regarding topics such as community, crowd sourced publications, history, commerce, and the change in city landscape. It draws on social history, urban archaeology, photography and social computing applications. The project contemplates questions such as “Where are we now?” and “What is our place in this landscape?” and “What role does this landscape play in our lives?”
The four project directors used funding from Pittsburgh 250 Community Connections to edit the book Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2009). This crowd-sourced book of photographs documents and celebrates the visual landscape of the region through its signs, past and present. It is available on Amazon and at the Carnegie Mellon Bookstore.
www.pittsburghsigns.org
Press about The Pittsburgh Signs Project
1. Boingboing – Pittsburgh Signs Project: appreciation of the glorious signage of Pittsburgh or as PDF
2. Pittsburgh City Paper – Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania 12/08 or as PDF
