THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF DECORATIVE ARTS
The Canadian Society of Decorative Arts/ Cercle canadien des arts décoratifs was formed, with the generous support of the Macdonald Stewart Foundation, to provide a forum for all those interested in the decorative arts.
The Ontario Arts Council is an Agency of the Government of Ontario
neon promises
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James A. Chambers
click image to enlarge
In 1971 my new bride and I drove from Toronto to British Columbia in a 1967 VW bus. The Trans-Canada cut through the Prairies like a lesson in one-point perspective. At night the white lines disappearing under the van willed my heavy-lidded eyes to close. Just as I was about to nod off and create a tragedy, a faint glow would appear in the distance, an oasis that promised life and civilization. Like moths drawn to a porch lamp we excitedly anticipated what the ever-growing neon glow would reveal.
For millennia, shopkeepers, tradesmen and artisans have been marking their places of business with signs that promise reward and satisfaction to whoever crosses their threshold. A catalogue of universally understood symbols has become part of our collective consciousness. Only in the last 130 years have these symbols been illuminated by electric light, as was the delightful wooden “Huyler’s” sign that hung in front of this Toronto restaurant for close to thirteen years.
Before the invention of electric lights, skilled and not so skilled artists created painted and sculpted signs in two or three dimensions to advertise services and products. The iconography of commercial signs has not changed much in the last couple of thousand years. The Greeks and Romans used signs made of stone and terracotta or painted them on the outside walls of their shops. A bush indicated a tavern selling wine, a boot a cobbler, and in the Middle Ages, a pawnshop was indicated by three gold balls, a symbol attributed to the Medici family that is still used today.
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