Wednesday, May 20, 2026
David Barnett – Vernacular Spectacular: Preserving New York’s Signs and Stories
What makes a sign quintessentially New York, and what do our old signs tell us about who we are as New Yorkers? This talk dives into the city’s vernacular signage tradition, from hand-painted storefronts to neon spectaculars, tracing how design, craft, and identity intersect in the urban landscape. Drawing from his work as the Director of the New York Sign Museum, David Barnett, co-founder of Noble Signs, will examine how signs act as both design artifacts and vessels of collective memory, preserving the human stories, neighborhoods, and visual language that give the city its soul.
In an age of homogenized branding, this talk makes a case for why saving old signs isn’t just about nostalgia, but about reclaiming ownership of our city’s shared visual history. Our goal is to show how codifying and preserving the New York style is a mission that can both lift design as well create positive change at the local level.