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Whether we realize it or not, signs not only help us New Yorkers navigate the city, they also tell us something about the place we call home. Our city's signs are "bold and direct and loud but not screaming at you," explains Seamus Seery, collections manager for the New York Sign Museum at Noble Signs. Bold and direct but not (usually) screaming? Seems just like New Yorkers themselves.
This weekend, you can step inside the New York Sign Museum for mini tours with Seery and other experts to peek at New York City's signs of the past and the present as part of Open House New York. The sign shop and museum will open its doors along with dozens of other typically off-limits places for this weekend-long extravaganza celebrating the fascinating nooks and crannies of the five boroughs. Open House events run from October 17-19; here's the full list of places to visit.
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Open House New York was founded in the wake of 9/11 by a grassroots group of architects who believed that "the openness of our shared urban fabric is the foundation of civil society," event organizers explained. It officially debuted in 2003 and has run every year since.
Meanwhile, Noble Signs was founded in 2013 and moved into its Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, building in 2018, adding the New York Sign Museum the following year. It first opened its doors for Open House New York just last year, making it one of the newest—and most popular—sites of the annual weekend.
If you visit, you'll get to step inside the sign shop where you might catch artists painting signs. On a recent visit, the Time Out team spotted one artist painting a small pink-and-green specimen while a few others carefully wired a giant, illuminated pizza sign. Signs are everywhere here, so much so that it's hard to take it all in. Look up to see giant aluminum signs overhead advertising everything from pianos to meat—in all caps. These relics of the '60s and '70s evoke the visual identity of New York City, Seery tells Time Out.
"Signage is a way to navigate a city. It's how you make your mental map. You know buildings and signs. It's important to have that connection to the city you're in," Seery says. "We think it's important to maintain that identity. Each city has its own design style."
The New York identity features modular type and bold designs, often with striking red and yellow tones to stand out in a noisy visual landscape.
Signage is a way to navigate a city. It's how you make your mental map.
"That's a main goal of the sign museum. To be a place where we can educate people on sign makers and sign-making techniques, signage history, New York City design history, 20th Century design history," Seery adds.
In addition to the bevy of exquisite metal signs you'll see on view as you peruse the shop and the museum upstairs, also look for glowing neon signs, plastic vacuum-form signs and nearly "indestructible" porcelain signs.
Noble Signs, co-founded by David Barnett and Mac Pohanka, makes modern signs with this old-fashioned, handmade ethos—a particularly refreshing craft in an era of cheap LED signs, bland vinyl signage and widespread AI slop. The company specializes in handmade signage, custom typography and lettering, and brand and storefront design all from their Brooklyn shop. You can see some of their work here—and on streets across New York City.
As the artisans started to study vintage signs they picked from the garbage and received through donations, adding the museum component was a natural fit.
We saw that these signs were disappearing and that this style was really endangered.
"The guiding thing behind the museum is: How do we capture this unique New York style, keep it alive? Because that was why we founded Noble in the first place. We saw that these signs were disappearing and that this style was really endangered. From the very beginning, we were trying to design signs and storefronts that had context within New York City," Barnett says.
As a graphic artist, Barnett admires the modernism, minimalism and Bauhaus quality of New York City's signs—tenets he and the crew at Noble still strive to keep alive. The designs are fresh and clean but not sterile.
"Everything has a purpose in the design. But at the same time, it has so much humanity and craft, and the personality of the people who made the signs really comes through," he adds.
For Open House weekend, the New York Sign Museum at Noble Signs is open for free from 12-4pm on Saturday, October 18 and Sunday, October 19 at 2465 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. If you can't make it this weekend, or you're looking for a more in-depth tour, the museum offers weekend tours for $25-$30. For more Open House New York fun, here's the full list of places to visit.