Billboard: Ring Finger

Is graphic design art? Can a billboard be art? Does it matter? This billboard is on 1st Avenue in Belltown (on the East side of the street looking South). It's on the side of a building that looks like it could be an old hotel. It's advertising a jewelry store that specializes in wedding rings.

I like the bold, simple graphics. The illustration of the hand is elegant and the incorporation of a the word "vacancy" in neon (which lights up at night, of course) is brilliant. It communicates everything with minimal words. The graphic and the text work together to tell a story. And isn't that what good design should do?

Someone once said (and it's probably a someone famous, I just don't remember) that design solves a question, while art poses one. I like that idea. If I agree with and want to stick to that idea, then I guess this is graphic design. Then why is it here on a blog about public art?

Because I really like it.

Location: 1st Avenue, Belltown, Seattle