The Signage Foundation completed its five-year partnership with the University of Cincinnati (UC) last month with the 2014 National Signage Research & Education Conference (NSREC), where highlights included an overview of studies of sign visibility and effectiveness.
Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) researcher Philip Garvey and United States Sign Council (USSC) legislative consultant Richard Crawford presented the overview of nearly 20 years’ worth of collaboration between their organizations, comprising 12 studies of sign visibility and effectiveness. There was also an economic comparison of illuminated and non-illuminated signs based on a survey of end users, presented by Villanova University marketing professor Charles R. Taylor, and a preview of a soon-to-be-published community guide to regulating temporary signs. Craig Berger of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) discussed a new study of consumer reactions to various types of electronic and landmark signage, while Michigan State University (MSU) researchers presented the results of a survey about sign codes affecting streetscapes (pictured, left) and discussed basic sign planning laws.
The conference also saw the formation of the Academic Advisory Council for Signage Research & Education (AACSRE) to suggest future industry-related research projects, chaired by Dawn Jourdan of the University of Oklahoma (OU) and Gene Hawkins of Texas A&M University. And Chris Auffrey, a professor at the UC School of Planning, provided an overview of new instructional tools for looking at the importance of signage. Some sessions were held at the American Sign Museum (pictured, right).
In 2015, while UC will continue to participate in NSREC, the next event will instead be hosted by OU’s College of Architecture. The theme will be ‘Past Meets Present: Preserving and Integrating Historic Signs Using New Technologies.’
