Typographic Neon Bliss on the Vegas Strip, Thanks to the Hipstamatic App

 This is a long overdue follow up to my last post, "Vegas, It's All About the Typography." 

 

First off, WHOA! Las Vegas Blvd.otherwise known as the Vegas Strip, and Fremont Street located in "Old Vegas", is a visual overload of the senses. I arrived pretty late in the day so I decided that I would take a short nap before venturing into the neon wilderness. It turned out that by the time I awoke it was 12am. That's when I realized that the coming week would be more fun if I stopped clock watching except when absolutely necessary. Vegas never closes, so why not experience it at all times of the day?

As I approached the strip I became aware of how enormous a Vegas city block really is. I must do the research but it seems to me that each block is far larger than a NYC block. Please chime in if you're up on the stats. Equipped with my iPhone, I began to snap several pictures of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel when I realized how difficult it is to shoot neon at night. By the way, I won't be posting those pictures! The light bounced and and colors changed as I snapped the photo, leaving me with a blurry many blurry images. Kudos to the professionals. Here is one, yes one photo that I dare share: The photo to the right is of  The Venetian Hotel which looks musch better viewed on an iPhone.

All embarrassment aside, something told me that I needed a little help from my Hipstamatic app. How could I share typographical eye candy with all of you if my photos looked just o.k.? I do not profess to be a photographer, I only have composition skills on my side.

The following pictures were taken (Hipstamatic) during the day at The Neon Museum where I took a tour of the Neon Boneyard; a resting place for the incredible Vegas neon signage of the past.
 

 

 

The aisles in the Neon Boneyard are about 12 feet wide at the most which I found challenging because I was unable to shoot and entire sign but it turns out that the photographs are much more interesting because of this challenge.

This last shot was taken at the El Rancho Motel far from the strip on my way to the Hoover Dam.

As an artist, my trip inspired me in so many ways. The more I photograph, the better I see. Traveling outside of my environment invites my mind to expand on my own art and renews my creative energy. These images remind me how much I miss hand lettering and they have created a reference in which I will draw upon to design better stationery as well as fine art. I hope you have enjoyed the photographs.

Have you ever been to Vegas? What was your impression? I invite you to share your experience. If you haven't been there, I suggest going the Neon Museum.

The Neon Museum

Vegas - It's All About the Typography!

I'm visiting Nevada for the first time next week. The thought of hiking in the desert and touring the Hoover Damn has always intrigued me. Las Vegas on the other hand was not a place I ever cared to visit but when a friend invited me I gave it a second look and said yes. Winters in Ohio can seem like a lifetime. Cold snow and dark days leave me wanting to move to a warmer climate. The first snow is beautiful but the remaining months can take a toll. One can only put up with scraping the ice off their windshield, battling the icy roads and wearing a heavy coat and boots until April for only so long. Leaving this environment for just a week is a gift.

What made me change my mind about Las Vegas? A luscious hotel off the strip, a pool, warm weather (of course) and day trips to the desert. Best of all, I will be taking photographs of signs.
Yes, signs. I am am obsessed with typography. I Pin it, I create it, I manipulate it and I spend many hours drooling over it. When I was a student at The Columbus College of Art and Design, hand lettering was part of the curriculum - way before Adobe suite and all the other digital design programs. Through drawing existing type, I learned to see design in a very different way. I am enamered with the talent of type design and type designers. Las Vegas seems to me like the perfect place for typographical inspiration, obviously because neon signs are everywhere.

While researching for this blog entry, I came across a blog by a Thomas Hawk, a photographer, called Digital Connections. My Google search, signs in las Vegas led me to a particularly interesting entry, "Las Vegas City Life on the Neon Museum Controversy." The Neon Museum? Yes! Now that seems more exciting than gambling.

Thomas's entry discusses  his "difficulty in obtaining permission to photograph the Neon Museum’s neon boneyard, a collection of old and historic neon signs in Las Vegas." and the Neon Museum's newly implemented copyright laws.

www.http://thomashawk.com/2006/09/las-vegas-city-life-on-neon-museum.html

It looks like I won't be sharing any photos from the Museum but I will definitely be snapping pics of neon on the strip. I came across an app called Fontly. Fontly - a web and iPhone app, lets users discover, share and track typography by location. Fontly also helps to preserve many of the world's typographical wonders. I hope to share these wonders on Fontly and with you. Hopefully you will be inspired by the many sign, vintage and new, of Vegas. If you have an iphone, check out Fontly!

Who knows, I might like Vegas better than the desert. Either way, I won't be wearing a coat and boots!