"We shall be analyzing and categorizing the signs of Las Vegas by content and form, by function (night and day) and location as well as by size, color, structure and method of construction, trying to understand what makes the 'Las Vegas style' in signs and what we can learn from them about an impure architecture of form and symbols. A stylistic analysis of Las Vegas signs would trace the influence of the greats (the designers in YESCO) through to the minor architecture of wedding chapels and sauna baths, compare the national and general sign imagery of the gasoline stations with the unique and specific symbolic imagery of the casinos, and follow the influence patterns back and forth between artists and sign makers."
— Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form
Standard practice dictates that signage on any property is a precise, calculated dividend of total property square footage. City planners in Los Angeles, for example, have stuck to this formula since the young days of artist Ed Ruscha (pronounced “Ru-Shay”), which sparked his series of books (published in the '60s) chronicling the city’s mundane, repetitive architecture—Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Some Los Angeles Apartments. When high-brow architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown got the hint, they set their path to study Las Vegas in a similar fashion.
— Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form
Standard practice dictates that signage on any property is a precise, calculated dividend of total property square footage. City planners in Los Angeles, for example, have stuck to this formula since the young days of artist Ed Ruscha (pronounced “Ru-Shay”), which sparked his series of books (published in the '60s) chronicling the city’s mundane, repetitive architecture—Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Some Los Angeles Apartments. When high-brow architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown got the hint, they set their path to study Las Vegas in a similar fashion.
Their manifesto, as sampled above, suggested they sought great answers to what made Las Vegas rich in image and allure. Most surprisingly, however, they found Las Vegas was doing exactly what Los Angeles had been doing for so long, but to maximum degrees: empowering its car-bound visitors by building space according to car paths. In contrast to Los Angeles, however, Las Vegas' strength resided in the city's uniform effort in building the biggest, most meaningful signs. Cities worldwide—like L.A., New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo—would strive mimicking the Las Vegas way in future years (or present day), which is why this Venturi and Scott Brown exhibition is fascinating. In the show, over 100 photos and a handful of studies reveal "sign scientists" building sign models, the inspiration to some of the boldest colors and designs, charts examining the thorough sign makeup to every hotel landscape, and so much over-the-top glittering goodness more. VIVA LA SIGNS!
VIDEO: "Las Vegas by Car, 1968" [press play below]
LEARNING (top to bottom) Museum-goers enjoying MOCA's "Learning from Las Vegas." / A photo from the exhibition of a quick sign sketch. / Like Ed Ruscha, architects Venturi and Scott Brown snapped shots of car-bound scenic space in Las Vegas. / An interesting photo in the exhibition, of sign models in observation.
Explore Venturi and Scott Brown's Las Vegas in "Las Vegas Studio: Images from the Archives of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown." Now in exhibition view through June 20 at MOCA Pacific Design Center.
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