New Signs Are Wayfinders For Gallery Owners

By Ed Fuentes
Published: Tuesday, November 03, 2009, at 05:07PM

GalleryRow6715 Ed Fuentes [Flickr]
GalleryRow6718 Ed Fuentes [Flickr]

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The sleek, clean lines of new signage marking Gallery Row are an elegant contrast against the detailed architecture of Downtown's Historic Core. Despite taking a four-year off-and-on process to get done, the Community Redevelopment Agency-sponsored project may just prove to be very timely.

The idea to brand Gallery Row beyond the City's official blue neighborhood signs started at roughly the same time Gallery Row did. The area between 2nd and 9th, Spring and Main, was formally dedicated on May 15, 2004.

In the time since, the Downtown Art Walk's mindshare has far surpassed that of Gallery Row and the Gallery Row Organization.

The 25 signs go up at a time when the galleries are again attempting to set out on a branding and awareness effort. That push will again take place under the Gallery Row name.

Gallery owner and Downtown Art Walk founder Bert Green thinks the new signs and associated branding will be helpful. "We now have tools that are very useful," said Green. "The design includes window decals and a usage style book that was provided by the designer."

The project, which sat quietly for a few years, was revived again in 2007 and plodded along until late last month, when the signs were installed. Design work on the $95,000 project was done by Downtown firm Durfee | Regn in association with graphic designer Brian Roettinger.

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Comments

1
keith writes:

Signage, seems like downtown lacks signs for other things as well, like the metro station - 7th & fig

# on Nov.03.2009 AT 05:15 PM
2
Joe writes:

These signs actually look sort of British to me. Maybe that's just the style these days.

# on Nov.03.2009 AT 06:08 PM
3
Brigham Yen writes:

I like them a lot. It looks simple and clean as well as sophisticated. I can see these signs inside Phillip Lim 3.1 store.

# on Nov.03.2009 AT 10:38 PM
4
E. writes:

I like the signs. It's refreshing to see a nice font used, instead of one of the countless crappy ones.

# on Nov.04.2009 AT 07:47 AM
5
Christophe Serafino writes:

I like them, I noticed one on Spring and 4th waiting for the DASH. Very clean.

# on Nov.04.2009 AT 09:18 AM
6
Joe writes:

There are now more "Gallery Row" signs than there are galleries.

# on Nov.04.2009 AT 04:54 PM
7
Bert Green writes:

Not quite, there are 36 galleries and museums, and 25 signs.

# on Nov.04.2009 AT 06:06 PM
8
Ned writes:

That's almost a 1:1 ratio!

Overkill much? Or gallery underkill ??

# on Nov.04.2009 AT 07:25 PM
9
Bert Green writes:

Considering there were 3 galleries in 2003 that's a pretty good growth rate. Anyway, the number of signs is meant to create an overall dotted-line pattern from above that defines the Gallery Row boundaries, so think of it as a conceptual art piece.

# on Nov.04.2009 AT 07:32 PM
10
Ned writes:

From above?

Oh, so the Saatchi's can find Gallery Row when they helicopter in to stock up on authentic conceptual art!

Chic.

# on Nov.04.2009 AT 08:58 PM
11
EGL2 writes:

We (Urban Design Studio) were asked to work with the CRA after the scheme was initially proposed. We selected a more restrained color (over a screaming orange) and helped improve the fasteners. Some folks thought they would not stand out; the result however is more elegant and complementary to the buildings. Glad you like them.

Now if we can begin to strip away all that other clutter of city signs and merge them into a simple consolidated standard.

# on Nov.05.2009 AT 06:03 PM
12
out my window writes:

Forget about the art signs what's up with the art walk?

# on Nov.06.2009 AT 10:49 PM

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