About a half-dozen new signs that join the Route 66 logo with a roadrunner will be installed in Albuquerque by the end of March, reported KRQE-TV in Albuquerque.
The road runner, incidentally, is the state bird of New Mexico. The mockup of the multipurpose directional sign, which is partly designed to direct tourists to attractions in the city, is shown above.
EFG Creative in Albuquerque designed the signs, and have a few more Mother Road-inspired designs in the hopper that it hopes the city will adopt as well. The television station has some of the details:
This new look is part of the Route 66 Action Plan officially adopted by the city in November. It’s a big, long-term project involving preservation of historic buildings, public artwork, infrastructure improvements, business development and more promotion of the Mother Road.
More signage is always a good thing.
I’d like to see colors a little more vibrant for the route number. Maybe with the “66” in a brighter, contrasting color, rather than the muted teal that blends in both color and line with the roadrunner.
But anything is welcome, and it’s certainly good news to see more signage going up, and the Route 66 Action Plan moving forward.
Well, more signs are better than no signs, for sure, but I can’t say I’m a fan of this. The new sign has a saccharine “corporate” look to it. It’s also graphically complicated — it takes too long for the eye to decode all conflicting lines and shapes — the numeral sixes are so skewed out of shape, you can’t tell for sure what you’re seeing. What happened to the old federal shield and directional arrows?
I agree that the 66 doesn’t stand out particularly and a bright turquoise instead of teal would help, but I think the signs are awesome. I am so excited about Albuquerque promoting Route 66! When their plan works and they can demonstrate that Route 66 is worth the investment, other places will see the potential in what they have.