The answer lies in the underappreciated art of typography, the field that studies the beauty of the forms of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet and the craft of selecting appropriate typefaces and properly spacing letters and words. Montpelier s business signs collectively play a large role in creating the town s visual feel. As the strata of an archaeological dig can reveal cities built upon each other, a snapshot of a town s signs taken on any one particular year can similarly reveal a cross-section of history, the tastes of the present intermingled with interesting styles of past generations.
Signs have personalities, and like humans, their personal quirks are best seen in the little things.
Starting at the middle of town, the Cool Jewels sign has been much maligned for its gaudiness. The size of the sign, coupled with the business name, which reflects the slang pronunciation of 1970 s California teenage girls, already make it discordant in Montpelier s landscape of 19th century New England architecture. However, size and culture clashes alone are not the real reason people have found this sign repellent. Our Western culture s sense of classic proportions is one where a vertical axis is primary. Of the hundreds of thousands of letterforms you have seen in your lifetime, nearly all have been tall and narrow.