Signs, Page 2

Are pirujos and shucos sandwiches getting out of hand? Come on, who can eat a sandwich this big. Just to clarify, the …

The above yellow corner is located on 1a calle poniente in La Antigua Guatemala. The Astoria delicatessen is just one of many delicatessen in La Antigua Guatemala. We are privileged in this aspect with access to some fine and exclusive ingredients. La Antigua Guatemala is a tiny town that wants to be a huge cosmopolitan metropolis, but without the traffic, rush hours, or smog. Let it dream!

The Fetish Etymology Side Note: First there was the Spanish word Hechizo (witch craft or witch-made) which turned into Feitiço in Portuguese. The Portuguese Feitiço swam over the North Sea to France and became Fetiche (actually, between you and I, Feitiço flew to France on a broom; but since we are talking about the XV century we don’t want to risk misinterpretation, you know). Once in France it was only a matter of time for the English to snatched the foreign-sounding word, but because they did not how to spell it, Fetiche became Fetish. Unfortunately this was at the time when the Europeans were trading with humans from Africa and because they did not know much about Africans religions they use the word fetish to denominate all those religious rituals. Karl Marx felt that merchandise possessed a bewitching aspect and thus it was evil, so he called this malicious attraction a fetish. Once in the German language, it was only a matter of time (again) for mister Sigmund Freud to muddle with its meaning to apply it to the phenomena he was observing in his clinic. With this last meaning fetish (fetiche in Spanish) came back to its mother tongue; completely transformed.

I am a sucker for signs and La Antigua Guatemala has an amazing palette of signs made from wood, ceramic tiles, metal, paint, glass, etc. Perhaps, I am sensitive to signs because of my graphic design background or maybe because I am sign junkie. I like the colors, the materials and sometimes simply the typography used. The sign above is made from metal, welded together and installed at entrance of the parking lot of Porta Hotel Antigua with a gorgeous hand-made typeface. Sorry, I said I am sign addict and since I try to show you what one is expected to find while strolling around Antigua Guatemala.

In La Antigua Guatemala even transnational companies have to bend their rules of signage and corporate identity to blend and be in harmony with the architecture and colonial style of the town. Check out the Transnational series signs I did back in October 2006.

Soon everyone will be familiar with this logotype. Resistance is futile, all of you will be assimilated, we are the borg-campero. Juan José Gutiérrez and Dionisio Gutiérrez remind me of Pinky and The Brain because of their new weekly plans to take over the world. The first plan began over 35 years ago, 1971 to be precise, in tiny joint in Guatemala City. Their plan was very simple: let’s make a clone of Kentucky Fried Chicken and let’s sell it the world over. So far their plan has taken as far many U.S. cities, Madrid and Jakarta and in ten days to Shanghai. In China, Pinky and The Brain Gutiérrez plan to open up 500 new restaurants in the next five years; that is little over 8 restaurants per month. The Gutiérrez plan is to convince-convert the world over to their recipe of fried chicken which is tender, juicy and crunchy by way of plain logic: after all, how can 1.7 billion Chinese be wrong, right?