Times Square

Every New Yorker’s nightmare is making the attempt to get through New York City’s Times Square alive. The swarms of tourists are almost intolerable and when they take pictures of every single little thing you are baffled. There are just billboard signs upon billboard signs and store signs trying to compete with the rest by being the biggest, the boldest, the loudest, the most colorful. Those who design the signs and billboards, have to be aware of color use and typography. The goal is obviously to stand out more than those surrounding it. Well its hard to admit, but the place is pretty amazing. Now billboards are not just humungous sheets of paper with stupid model photographs selling cosmetics, but LED screens with moving type, or even actual motion clips. Walgreens will be installing the largest LED advertising billboard yet. The sign will have 12 millions light-emitting diodes which is 17,000 square feet of them, which is one third of an acre. It is a sign. For Walgreens. Why? But who cares. As a designer, this seems like a pretty big deal, that something to this degree is actually feasible and actually being put into effect. I would not say that the location is designed very well, but the amount of design packed, shoved, and over-loaded into such a small area is definitely a sight to see, for both the tourist and the designer.