The Signs Are Good

Don’t you love reading the Burma Shave signs on your way into the city? And aren’t you grateful that you can look up at an intersection in the middle of the night and figure out exactly where you are?

There’s a charming and hard-working crew to thank for that, and we made a pilgrimage out to the Burning Man work ranch to see how they do it.

The first thing that strikes you is the order of magnitude of the work: There are thousands of signs to be stenciled and printed and assembled. There are spray cans everywhere, and a giant computer printer is spitting out vinyls that have to be trimmed by hand, then mounted onto metal backing.

And with Opening Day breathing down their necks, you’d think the stress/frustration/tension levels would be well into the red zone. But nope. Not here. Jen, Heather and Abby are bent down over their work, but they clearly enjoy each other, and the task.

They are ensconced in a tree-shaded corner of the work ranch, which is about 10 miles down Route 447 past the entrance to the event site. It’s out beyond where the highway pavement ends, and the only thing you can hear is the rustling of the wind and the music playing softly from a boom box in the corner. It is not a bad place to be. 

“They let us play,” Heather says of the designs for the signs that will delineate the streets of the city. She and Mel and the others have come up with a three-dimensional spaceship design for the Cargo Cult theme,  and each of the other street sign designs  seems to reflect the good-naturedness of the crew.

[Public service announcement: The sign shop folks would like to remind you NOT to take the signs as mementos, at least not till after the event. Yes, they are great souvenirs, but until everything is over, they are vital to the health of the city. Think of it this way: If you or someone you care about needs help, you’re going to want to be able to tell people where you are, and if the signs are gone, that’s going to be a problem. So don’t take the signs until the event is over. Thanks!]

Many of the people on the sign crew are long-time Burners and long-time DPW. Mel has been around since 2001, and Heather arrived the same year. Abby’s been DPW since 2006, and she joined the sign shop in 2007. Mel, Heather says, “has a brain that incorporates the whole city,” and she’s able to anticipate what will be needed year to year.

Abby is peering at a big computer screen as we chat, with a sizable printout of fonts at the ready. She’s a former copyeditor, and she might worry more than most that no typos get past her. “There’s at least four sets of eyes on everything we do,” she says, “so not much gets through.”

Still, there’s a lot that needs to get done. It’s not just the signs that mark the city’s intersections, but also all of the emergency notification signs, plus whatever the various departments need – Artery, Rangers, ESD, Transpo, Roads, and all the rest. They’ll produce thousands of signs every year, with amazing grace and collaboration.

So if you’re lucky enough to get a sign on the way out, know that good karma comes with it. But only if you wait until the end.