A Sneak Peek Inside the American Sign Museum Book
Celebrating 25 years of the American Sign Museum through the lens of its most important exhibits.
Last Autumn I responded to a request for proposals (RFP) to write the 25th anniversary book for the American Sign Museum. To my surprise and delight they liked my vision for the publication and took me on as the author, alongside Natalie Grilli as the photographer and Kathy Kikkert as the book's designer.
This triggered an intense six months of collaboration, which in my case focused on research, writing, editing, and proof reading. This included a wonderful week at the Museum in March.
I'll confess that pulling this all together, on top of the Letterheads special issue of BLAG, and a lot of travel across the first half of 2025, burned me out — to some extent, I'm still recovering! However, it was all made very much worth it when I got to drive over to the printer last Friday and hold the book in my hands for the first time.
Here's a sneak peek inside the hardcover edition, which can be pre-ordered directly from the American Sign Museum. I also have some copies of the softcover edition (same content, different cover) available to pre-order from the BLAG shop, with shipping from Spain for those in the EU, and the UK for customers elsewhere.
Flicking through the American Sign Museum book.
Visit the BLAG shop to pre-order your copy of the softcover edition of the American Sign Museum book. These will ship in late October from Spain for EU customers and the UK for those elsewhere.
Inside the Book
The book is structured into three sections. These introduce the Museum, take a whistle-stop tour of the history of signs in America represented by its collections, and tell the story of how the Museum itself has developed over the last quarter century.
Each of the main sections opens with a double-page spread featuring dazzling snapshots of the riot of signage that visitors experience when they walk through the Museum.
The ‘Museum in Numbers’ chapter introduces some of the Museum's notable signs, including the tallest, widest, hungriest, oldest, and most expensive.
One of the narrative threads that runs through the Museum and its exhibits is the interplay between technology and sign design and fabrication. This is the focus of the ‘Signs in America’ section, which includes a jargon-busting ‘Signs 101’ chapter.
The two chapters from ‘Signs in America’ section.
However, just like the Museum, the real heroes of the book are the signs themselves. Dozens of the most important exhibits are profiled via ‘Sign Stories’, often accompanied by archival and contextual images.
Just some of the dozens of ‘Sign Stories’ told inside the book. These are just a slice through the hundreds on display in the Museum itself.
Thanks
I am hugely honoured and grateful to have been a part of this wonderful project and I thank everyone involved for their collaboration and contributions. To name names, that's Natalie and Kathy on the core book team, Erin, Ioanna, Jesse, and Tod at the Museum, and then Jenna on copyediting and Josep on printing. None of this would have been possible without you all.
In a future post, and in BLAG 08, I'll share some stuff that didn't make the final cut, so look out for those future despatches from the American Sign Museum book...
More Books
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My Week at the Museum
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