The Great International Highway Makeover

A revision and expansion of the original website known as “Yamamoto’s State Higway Makover Boo-teek.”

HIGWAY MAKOVER

This page last updated

September 19, 2003. Highway route markers have gotten boring over the years. Many governments have opted for the MUTCD default (circles) or plain blank squares. The justification for those sparse designs is that they provide for increased number visibility and easy recognition. True enough, but nothing says you can’t design a useful sign that’s graphically attractive. Linked below are many examples of potential re-designs. Most of these signs are based on square / rectangular blanks which are reasonably easy to knock off. The difference with these signs is what you put on them. Inspiration for sign makeovers can be found in Alabama which uses a modified state outline on their official highway sign; Colorado, which uses the state flag in color and Pennsylvania which uses a state symbol. We are still accepting submissions to this collection. If you have a sign you wish to contribute, read the guidelines at the bottom of the page.

Recent additions / changes: Alaska, Hawaii, North America, Australia, Mississippi, Texas, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Alabama, Florida, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, Iowa, Japan, North Carolina, Netherlands, New Hampshire, Colorado, South Carolina, Vermont, Hong Kong, Great Britain, Europe, China, Utah, Alberta, Thailand

Highway Makeover is organized as follows, by alphabetical order:NO CIRCLES

Country or Regional Highway Markers

State / Province Highway Markers

Australia

Canada

Alberta Ontario Saskatchewan Yukon

China

Hong Kong

European Union

France

Germany

Great Britain (United Kingdom)

Japan

North America

Netherlands

Sweden

Thailand

United States

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New York New Mexico North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia West Virginia Washington Wisconsin Wyoming

Those of you wanting to avoid eyestrain can look at larger versions some of the above-linked shields at Big Signs.

gO mOTO

Check out the Comrade Yamamoto Experience – Highway goodness from the Top Ho & Spiffin’ ® – High Power Wide – Building Strong Karma 12 Ways ® Crapola ® pushin creator of this site

Main Page U.S. Highways: From US 1 to (US 830)

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Original Yamamoto Banner This website based on an original concept by C.C. Slater : “Mr Yamamoto’s State Highway Sign Makeover”. C.C. had left the Net for personal reasons and his permission to continue this campaign against monotony was granted at that time. When he returned to the Net, resumption of control of this site was offered to him. He decided to leave it here in its highly mutated form. (The original site was all on two pages.) Graphics of existing signs are available at James Lin’s Road Signs Pages. Mr Slater’s words are quoted to him herein as CCS. The host’s words are marked RVD. Maine sign background photo courtesy Jonathan E. Ponder of Lakeland, FL. Drop him a line.

S U B M I S S I O N G U I D E L I N E S : Preferred size of submissions is 75 x 75 pixels in JPG, GIF or BMP format (roughly 1″ x 1″ or 25mm x 25mm). Wide-sized (3 digit) sign submittals should be approximately 94 x 75 pixels (roughly 1.25″ x 1″ or 32mm x 25mm). Oversize submittals will be mercilessly shrunk before posting, no matter how bad it makes them look. New designs will be added as (my) time and space permits. Descriptions of proposed signs will not be posted unless accompanied by a picture. If you are shy or embarrassed about your drawing ability, check the existing posts. Preferred file naming convention: Your initials + postal or country code + a number. Please do NOT copy a previous submission. Such signs will be rejected. Changing colors or the slogan is not enough a new submission, that’s commentary. Your commentary on another’s submittal may be added at the my discretion. If you would like graphics or commentary that were posted here earlier on your behalf removed or altered, let me know.