During my spring semester, my final project for the course was to imagine what a Pittsburgh style "Hollywood" sign might look like. I took that one step further and decided to "re-imagine" what the sign on Mt. Washington could be.
Currently, as pictured above, the sign previously sponsored by the Bayer corporation is now owned by Lamar Advertising, who covered up the non-functioning electronic billboard with an advertisement for Sprint.
Prior to 2014, the sign was used to display "public service" announcements, such as the time, temperature and messages such as a reminder to always buckle up when driving. When Bayer decided to no renew their lease on the sign, it went blank, exposing the aging sign and it's need for repair.
This concept rescues the sign from it's current state, which is an eyesore to not only us native Pittsburghers, but to tourists who are visiting the city for perhaps the first time. The concept would restore the sign to a modern day LED board. This would enable the sign to display information provided by the city, the mayor and more importantly YOU!
My concept called "Design the Sign" would provide a template that can be distributed to graphic designers and curated. Public use would be provided by a website which would contain the template and guidelines on making their own design. These designs would then be reviewed by a third party (creating jobs) and if deemed appropriate displayed on the sign.
Example of "Pittsburgh" artwork.
The sign could be used by our sports teams, in this example, the Penguins letting everyone know who the champs are!
Two of it's original uses in one. In this senario, the sign is sponsored by UPMC and displaying their logo plus the time and temperature.
Directing the public to designthesign.com to leave their message high up on Mt. Washington.
Simple "Welcome to Pittsburgh" message.
The sign could also be used by the city, reminding them to follow the official city twitter for important news and updates.
As hopefully demonstrated in the above examples, the sign currently sitting atop Mt. Washington is doing the city no good with it's current use. I hope to get the attention of Lamar Advertising and Mayor Peduto and bring the sign back to it's former glory!