Vietnam Signage
January 9th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
There are no shortages of signs in Vietnam but what’s especially unique here are the lo-fi hand-made signs. I am including in this post my personal favorites around Hanoi.
This photo is of a sign for a bike shop down in an alley in Ba Đình district. It is a neighborhood of tightly clustered streets with mom and pop shops at every turn. This is one of them. I have passed this shop many many times and always admired the hand-painted typographic work: the italics in the first line, the use of alternating colors where “Xe Đạp” (motorbike) and “Xe Máy” (bicycle) are naturally grouped together, the hyphens. This is one of my most favorite signs in Vietnam.
I was riding around on my motorbike when one day I looked up and saw this little gem. Doesn’t it look like something straight out of some 1980s punk rock zine? The upward slant! The filled in O. The italics on the top. I especially like the C’s, and the negative space inside the letter, where it feels a bit like a sideways fat letter T. This sign is for a little barber shop on the bottom floor of someone’s house. He only has one chair but as the sign says, he’s only 10 meters down the alley!
