Group 8: Signs On State Street

Last week my crew and I took a drive down State Street to view some of the signs and to see how they affected the city and its people. The specific medium that we were looking at were physical signs and the much larger billboards. Both of these were rather large, mostly on the roof, or on a pole, etc., somewhere where they would be easily seen from far away. The signs are meant to pop out at the viewer, it makes you want to look at the sign, due to its color, and its large lettering. As you go down the street, your eyes can't help but drift over and look at some of the signs and read what they have to say. There are also signs that are right on the place of business. These signs are also very flashy and made to catch the passers-by's attention.

The presentation of the businesses affects the message by making it easier for people to see what they service or trade is, and bring more potential customers into their shop. The message that these signs convey is that Salt Lake is a very urban, market-oriented, and industrialized city.

While this didn't change our entire view on the city, it did add that sense of marketing that we hadn't fully acknowledged before on our other walkabouts. Previously we had gone to neighborhoods, art galleries, the Capitol Building, and a football game, but we had never seen the marketing and business side of the city. You get the feeling that Salt Lake is an economic landmark for Utah.

Anyone has access to this information, you just need to walk down State Street and you're bombarded by all these signs and billboards. You don't need to be of a certain class to walk on State Street, we saw all different types of people on the streets, everyone was welcome.

We did see one peculiar difference, though. We observed that the more north that you go, the more sophisticated the signs get, they're not as big and not in huge bold lettering, but in elegant free flowing lettering with a simple message. And as you get closer to the Capitol, there aren't many small shops, it's mostly made up of big business buildings such as the Wells Fargo Building, etc. There weren't many fast food joints, but more sit-down, classy restaurants.

There was a variety of different things just on one street. There were restaurants, car dealerships, tattoo parlors, big business skyscrapers, tire shops, and many more. Everything ranging from big business sky scrapers to small tire shops were found on this street, and the people and the signs were equally diverse.