Colors 1000 Signs

Road signs are everywhere, telling you what you're supposed to do (even if you ignore half of them). For the last three years COLORS Magazine has been collecting photographs of road signs from photographers all over the world. And now they've selected their favourite thousand for the book, COLORS 1000 Signs, which will be published in the spring by Taschen. Over 90 countries are featured in the book and as usual with projects from COLORS the photographs, while beautiful, aren't just there to look at - they're a way of seeing how the world works, a way of showing how tiny moments can hold larger cultural and social significance. The texts in the book explore these moments of difference. You'll find out how much tar is used every day in the States to build roads, why the STOP (or ARRET in Quebec and KOF in Morocco) is the only octagonal sign, and you'll get to meet people from around the globe for whom signs (and the road) are a vital part of their daily lives. Meet Dusit Somsak who directs traffic (while dancing) in Bangkok, Thailand, police officer Anamelba Mejia Siguenas who gives traffic fines and gets grief from chauvinistic male drivers in Peru, Rafik Karaouzen who is designing and building tunnels for the Cairo subway system or Bangladeshi immigrant Abdul Samad who cleans windshields in Rome's busy intersections.

The book, clearly and carefully designed will be published in two trilingual editions (English, German, French; Spanish, Italian and Portuguese), so it could come in handy for your next holidays. By the time you've finished reading and checking out the signs you'll know exactly when you're in danger of being killed, whether it's by a kangaroo or a landmine.

Available May 2004 at the best bookstores.

 

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