Re-imagining Street Signage: Roadsworth

Booster Blog

RE-imagining street signage

As discussed in Good Parking Lots: A Lot to Consider, clear pedestrian signage is of utmost importance when cars and pedestrians are in the same space. However, Canadian street artist Roadsworth shows that whilst it’s important, it doesn’t always have to follow the norm.

Based in Montreal, Peter Gibson has scattered head-turners all over the city. From the playful and the humorous, to the soberingly serious, his influence over simple street signage is dramatic.

An example of his transformation of the mundane to the abstract is a pedestrian crossing. The standard white stripes have been reimagined as planks of wood in a foot bridge. Schools of fish swim below to suggest the height of the bridge.

Another crossing is entangled in the tentacles of an enormous octopus.

One of his recent pieces depicts hands clambering behind a chain linked fence. It points towards the sombre reality of the refugee crisis, which currently has 65 million in its grip (according to the United Nations). The artist himself says that “walls and fences are for painting and climbing not for dividing and obstructing”.

A little art can go a long way. Whether it’s brightening peoples’ days, or directing their heads to areas of need, thinking outside of the canvas can have a quite an effect on our everyday environment.