Why

There are lots of folding signs near motorway junctions that are something to do with diversions or whatever, but for most of their existence they look a bit like blank signs. That seems like a bit of a waste of an opportunity, so I thought it would be good to make something out of one. I might have thought of doing something there for a while, but when it came round to the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, I thought “Darwin 200” would work well as a celebration and as a convincing road sign.

When

February 2009

Where

Stourton Motorway Junction

Materials / Media

Black tape, painted paper, glue, white paint.

Production

These things are always more time consuming and faffy than they might seem, Even the sign border took a bit of planning and messing about with.

Execution

The junction is a couple of miles from where I live so this required driving down. It’s also a busy junction on a main route into Leeds, so even very late at night it’s not entirely dead. It required a few trips, but it began by taking measurements and painting the sign white, from its original grey. The next trip was for either another coat of paint or for marking measurements for sticking on prepared letters and applying them. Big floppy glued letters are difficult to apply straight and without distortion. And doing it quickly to best avoid being caught adds to the difficulty. I think the letters were made out of normal a4 paper that had reversed letters printed on them and then the blank side painted with black gloss before being cut out. I think the letters were PVA glued on.

Notes

It looked alright for a while, and hopefully enough people saw it, understood the reference and liked it. I’d also considered different options before I became aware of the Darwin Anniversary and used that instead.

Duration & Fate

Only lasted a few days. It was torn off, but I don’t know if it was done by the highways agency. The tape was all just left on the ground and I felt that if it had been done officially, they would have taken it away. Maybe not though. It might just have been taken down by someone that didn’t believe in evolution.