Sign Hos

Changing the world, one intersection at a time.

Oh, they’re cute, the sign hos. Officially they’re the Sign Shop crew, but they came up with a new name for themselves (and I like it). I spent today riding around in the back of a pickup truck with them, listening to music and putting up all the street signs in the city.
It’s a pretty big project, working for Sign Shop. They’re prolific. Not only are there the street signs to mark every intersection, but also the “Reserved For Theme Camps” signs, the speed limit signs, No Parking No Driving, and let’s not forget the BurmaShave – the series of signs that lines the gate road leading into the city.

So these girls work hard and start earlier in the year than most DPW, and the result is impressive. Every one of the lateral streets (say it with me: Amnesia, Bipolar, Catharsis, Delirium, Ego, Fetish, Gestalt, Hysteria, and don’t forget Esplanade) has a different font on its signs. The Esplanade signs this year were each sprayed three times to get the silvery flame effect. And once they’re all painted and mounted to posts, everyone piles on the truck and drives up and down the streets attaching signs to t-stakes with baling wire and duct tape.


It ain’t fancy, but it works.

The girls are pretty fabulous, too. They’re beautiful and funny and can pack a punch (which I narrowly avoided finding out firsthand – but that’s another story). Today we came across a t-stake that had been run over in the night and bent over so that it touched the ground. Heather walked slowly over to the stake and, as the rest of us cheered, wrangled it back out of the ground until it stood straight again. Lovely.

Okay, but listen carefully here folks, because it’s important. I know some of you out there have quick fingers and wicked senses of humor and maybe a yen for cool souvenirs. However. Please don’t steal the signs! Well, at least not until Exodus. Think of all the work this girls put in – all the designing and construction and posting and the dancing on top of the truck – and let the signs be until they’re no longer useful. It’s the right thing to do.

PS! After work, we went to visit the Man Base crew, and they let us climb up to the top floor. Soon you can stand up here too. It’s got a great view of the city…

About the author: The Hun

The Hun

The Hun, also known as J.H. Fearless, has been blogging for Burning Man (and many other outlets) since 2005, which is also the year she joined the BRC DPW on a whim that turned out to be a ten-year commitment. Since then she's won some awards for blogging, built her own creative business, and produced some of the Burning Blog's most popular stories and series. She co-created a grant-funded art piece, "Refoliation," in 2007, and stood next to it watching the Man burn on Monday night during a full lunar eclipse. She considers that, in many ways, to have been the symbolic end of Burning Man that was. The Hun lives in Reno with DPW Shade King, Quiet Earp. You may address her as "The Hun" or "Hun". If you call her "Honey" she reserves the right to cut you.