. 2 minute read
A new phenomenon called sign spinning is taking over and the kerbs are no longer the place they used to be in America. A lost youth has seen the sign it was looking for and run with it – starting their careers in a mind-blowing fusion of street dance and sandwich board work, employed to glorify a once menial task and market businesses to passing traffic, pimping out everything from hair salons to mattress stores. Why? It pays, it’s outdoors, and it’s insanely fun.
To watch at least! Young and talented, these kids are attending sign spinning schools, taking part in professional competitions aka ‘world championships’ with big $5000 prizes, featuring on tv talk shows like Ellen, and generally earning a decent living by dancing with signs, street side. It’s an odd job that pays upwards of $9ph, usually a lot more upwards and way more than working at a burger joint.
As cars whizz past, they put their spinning skills to the test, treating four foot signs like size five basketballs.
It’s strenuous on the fingertips but a feast for the eyes. Their moves are hardcore, almost acrobatic, taken from the b-boys of breakdancing, and remade into their own signature tricks. Sometimes, deep in the Californian suburbs, groups of these guys come together to battle it out, showcasing everything from insane freestyle solos to synchronised partner work and choreographed group dances.
They take human billboards to the next level, to a weird level of cool, and the incessant honking of cars is at least some kind of proof. How many products actually get bought? Who knows? Who cares. American sign makers, Daft Signs, have put together a beautiful video, aptly scored to a Daft Punk single, to help people understand – it may seem like a daft pastime, but it’s so good it’s daft.
Recently relocated in WeWork, Centtrip is an upmarket organisation that’s a modern day success story, and its office identity reflects just that. The vibe is so skilfully formulated that we had to share.
Sam Roberts chronicles our artisanal DNA and commercial ancestry by scouring brick and mortar for ghost signs, everywhere from London to Australia, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
