Speech Bubble Sign

Greg Hefford, & Reinhard Reitzenstein

1995,

The Speech Bubble Sign (SBS) is an internally illuminated, commercial steel sign. The 6' x 3' x 7”oval sign has been refabricated into a cartoon style speech bubble. Its’ two plexiglass faces are spray painted white. The painting is irregular, dis-coloured.

The sign was originally intended for installation atop a smokestack near the Gardiner Expressway, which passes over Toronto's disappearing industrial landscape. A corridor of media structures and smokestacks denote the warehouses and condominiums below.  Emerging from one of the many smokestacks in the sea of electronic billboards would be the similarly illuminated sign. Taking the shape of a "speech bubble" or anthropomorphic cloud emission, the blank sign is integrated into the landscape.

While entering the domain of other electronic media structures, the sign stands in opposition to their primarily, commercial function. The space normally utilized for the promotion of a product remains blank. The sign becomes a beacon.

—

Materials: steel aluminum plexi light