I like clever practical jokes: The good ones that take time, planning, effort, craft and skill. There has to be a sense of mystery, astonishment and a sizeable dollop of “Howthehell did they do THAT?” at the end of the day.
Outside of Ottawa is a ‘burb called Constance Bay. For the longest time the big event in Constance Bay was getting drunk on the May 2-4 weekend and watching the sun set. It used to be a cottage community, back when Ottawa ended at Britannia and Bill Teron was dreaming about a planned community in the far west end. As Kanata and Ottawa expanded, Constance Bay was absorbed into the metro area with the attendant gentrification that comes with it.
One of the effects of gentrification is the establishment of a ‘business district’ and the need for a group of grasping merchant-class to promote the business area with signage, petitioning the city with their urgent, nay economically desperate, requirements to point the unwashed motor travelling hordes to the business district.
After the appropriate time and much contortionist ass-kissing, the sign was put up.
Constance Bay does have places to worship, eat, shop, launch boats and, of course, buy fuel. It would seem they also have other attributes in the community that are not normally advertised. By the way, the photo is not retouched. It’s from the Ottawa Citizen July 10th 2009. You can read the whole story here.
The joy of the sign is that the added panel matches the others perfectly. The spacing and margins are spot-on. The use of ‘international-style’ ISO graphic symbols, although not official, is a perfect representation of the bland stick-figures that populate our graphic world. Of course the actions being depicted at one time or another have likely happened in Constance Bay, so there is no hint of misleading advertising, which is important, especially for public signage.
The truly subversive pleasure is the skill, stealth and craft exhibited by the creators of that sixth icon: Perfectly done. I doff my metaphysical hat to the participants.
Welcome to Constance Bay. I’m sure you’ll like it.
RoadDave 