Design inspiration

February 19, 2008

Design inspiration comes from many sources. Today I found an interesting Web site and thought I’d share the pointer to it. The Interesting Ideas site (interestingideas.com) includes galleries of, and information about roadside sign art, outsider art, motels, ruins, and a lot of other outstanding vernacular art and design. The home page has a lot going on and navigation on the site can be confusing, but I found the menu at the bottom of the Roadside Art page (the second link below) to be a helpful starting point. This site is worth exploring.

“100 Best Images From Roadside Art Online”

They’ve taken 100 images from their online gallery of roadside sign art and written a post about them with a nifty little block of thumbnails that offers an at-glance view of about thirty signs.
A click on any one them takes you to a gallery of those images with larger, clickable thumbnails.

If you like vernacular design, as well as Outsider Art, as I do, check out interestingideas.com.

The photo above is from interestingideas.com (and is probably protected by copyright). Click it to see a larger version on the Web site. The owner of the site writes, “I’ve never found a more impressive painted sign than this one .” I have to agree it is great.

Here is a sign that I like from a Montana cowboy laundromat in Twin Bridges, Montana. I took it a few years ago while I was exploring the wonderful little town of Twin Bridges on a camping trip in that area. Click for a larger view: