Endangered Sign

I had time to kill this morning in South Slope so I stopped into Brooke's Vacuum and Sewing Machines on 7th Avneue to ask about their sign. I wanted to know how old it was and who made it. I wanted to know if they loved their sign. I do. It always catches my eye for some reason. I love the convincing detail, the way some of the appliances are rendered with perspective and shadows. The Eurika mighty mite is vacuuming up the V in vacuum, you know, you just don't see whimsical details like that in store signage very often. Most of the other signs on the street are the vinyl awning kind, which is ummm, fine, but variety is nice.

Charles, one of the 2 brothers who run this business, which has been in their family for 18 years, told me it was made about 8 years ago by Paul Signs, on 4th Avenue. I get the feeling they are responsible for most of the signs I see everytime I leave my house, but I'm not sure. They do vehicles, I wonder if they are responsible for the Quadrozzi trucks I am obsessed with. I have to know. Anyway, I was surprised the Brooke's sign wasn't older. I like the feel of age it has, and the preciousness of the images, just look at the sewing machine. The phone, don't you want to press those buttons?

Turns out they don't love the sign so much. Charles told me they have plans to replace it, but I think I made him feel insecure about that, overwhelming him with my enthusiasm for the sign in its current form. Charles said they want to update it, show even more appliances on it, and they want to distinguish their signage from that of the Clover Barber next door, which has exactly the same kind of lettering (but no appealing appliances.)

If you have any feelings about this, please participate in the pole on the upper left of the screen. Or send feedback or comments. Just on the off chance that any one's out there who loves the sign like I do. Save the sign!!

Update: Email from Paul Signs

...Most people nowadays are only concerned about how cheap they can get a sign for. That is how you get the blah blah signs that you see alot of today. We always try to make our signs stand out from the rest. We did not do the truck you mentioned though, although we do many trucks that are driving around Brooklyn and elsewhere.