Times Square: A Compass for Sign Growth

NYC never sleeps, and Times Square’s signs never stop changing. New sign projects pop up daily as leases expire and new clients move in with billboard change-outs and neon-to-LED replacements. Older LED displays become higher-resolution models.

The “Crossroads of America” is beginning its second century as the outdoor advertising capital of the world. Barry Winston of Winston & Co. (Teaneck, NJ) has probably spearheaded project management of more Times Square signs over the last several decades than most of his predecessors. In 2007, he was involved with Budweiser, Chevrolet, M&M’s® and Empire News sign projects, to name a few. Winston noted Times Square’s original neon look has all but disappeared.

Dave Ramirez, Daktronic’s New York project-development executive, said the new Daktronics (Brookings, SD) video signage completely contrasts with the old Times Square. The iconic neon signs – the former Coca-Cola, Fuji, Cannon and Samsung signs – have disappeared.

Winston noted, “Even the glowing and blinking neon spectaculars still had a ‘static presence,’ with a simple, sign branding. Now, we’re in the digital age, with LED video signage, where sign messages are closer in look and feel to television commercials.”

Once Times Square’s popular signs, such as the steaming Nissin Cup O’ Noodles and the tilting Budweiser bottle, have given way to new, digital displays. The location, which hosted the first electric zipper in 1928 and has continued the New Year’s Eve Time Ball ritual ongoing for 75 years, has been one of NYC’s most photographed buildings.

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Cup O’ Noodles, which had hung since 1996, has been replaced by the Chevrolet spectacular. Landmark Signs (NYC) dismantled the cup and is installing the huge, new Chevrolet spectacular in two phases.

The spectacular incorporates an LED display, a vinyl panel and several, Phase II surprises that can only be discussed when that section goes “live.” The new design, created by Campbell-Ewald, mimics a giant Glockenspiel clock, complete with side chains (fabricated as vinyl faces). Campbell-Ewald has been Chevrolet’s advertising agency for 95 years.

The giant Chevrolet clock is a clever sign strategy. “Times Square has hundreds and hundreds of signs, but no large, easily viewable clock,” Winston said.

The clock face, a high-resolution LED display provided by Multimedia LED (Rancho Cordova, CA), is designed with the eVidia display format. A 2-ft. aluminum bezel hides the eVidia LED modules’ stepped edges; a 12mm pitch (384 x 384 pixels) encircles the clock face’s 15-ft.-viewable diameter.

The four, different clock faces, which switch out every 15 minutes, prevent LED degradation inherent if the LED sign always “locked” onto one clock face. Steve Bumstead of Bellevue, WA-based Pixel Fire Productions, designed and operates the clock faces.

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The spectacular, fabricated in Fall 2006, was installed during the winter holidays, when a moratorium on cranes and street closures begins roughly a week before Thanksgiving, when the “official” holiday-shopping period begins.

Frank Barnes, Multimedia’s executive sales manager, said Multimedia’s engineers, Matt Sanders and Rick Van Rensselaer, gibed the moratorium with manufacturing. “Because the Chevrolet LED components couldn’t be craned into position on the front of the building, all the related LED cabinet components were designed and built to fit into the building’s freight elevator and then moved out the building windows for final installation,” Barnes explained.

Landmark Signs installed the Chevrolet sign and cabinets, using the building davits, before they bolted/welded them in place.

Chevrolet’s Phase I finished in time for the 2006 New Year’s Eve celebration, when it began a countdown to midnight as a snow globe. At midnight, it became a clock face.

Winston expects Phase II will be ready by summer’s end.