The second annual National Signage Research and Education Conference (NSREC) will embark on a five-year schedule this year when it convenes October 13-14 at the Kingsgate Marriott hotel, adjacent to the University of Cincinnati (UC) campus. Sponsored by the Signage Foundation Inc. (SFI), NSREC will set the stage for its S.T.A.R. initiative, with themes of Science, Technology, Art/Advertising and Regulation. Each of these four areas will be addressed this year, and then each will receive special emphasis in one of the next four years.
This event, as occurred at last year’s inaugural conference, represents a collaboration between SFI and UC’s Colleges of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) and Business.
Headlining this year’s conference will be H. Gene Hawkins Jr., whose presentation is entitled “The Science of Signage: Parallels between Traffic Signs and Business Signs.” Whereas highway signs have minimum standards to ensure legibility (and thus, traffic safety), business signs are limited by maximum standards. Hawkins, who doubles as an associate professor at Texas A&M University and as a research engineer for the Texas Transportation Institute, will suggest that both highway signs and business signs perform a similar function and should be legislated similarly.
Ken Von Wald, the SFI chairman, said, “NSREC represents the best opportunity to hear about best practices and latest developments within the key professional disciplines that impact effective signage. The exchange of ideas and discovery of new research while in the UC setting delivers a great continuing educational flair unique to NSREC.”
Other scheduled sessions for 2010 are as follows:
• The Technology of Signage: Electronic Paper, LED Illumination, and Teleportation: Fact or Fiction in 2010 and Beyond by Jason Heikenfeld, Associate Professor, Director, Novel Devices Laboratory, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, University of Cincinnati
• On-Premise Signs as Marketing Devices: Measuring the Value to the Business Enterprise in Takings Case by Charles R. Taylor, Ph.D., John A. Murphy Professor of Marketing, Villanova School of Business
• The Regulation of Signage: Guidelines for Local Regulation of Digital On-Premise Signs by Alan Weinstein, Associate Professor of Law and Urban Studies, Cleveland State University and Menelaos Triantafillou, Associate Professor, School of Planning, University of Cincinnati.
This summer, DAAP student Cody Meyer interned at North Shore Neon Sign Co. (Libertyville, IN). More internships are anticipated. Meyer and North Shore’s Duane Laska will present a report and video journal of the experience.
Finally, NSREC will include a highly interactive component, in which 10 small groups will address a “critical issue impacting signage” and compile findings from their discussions. Each topic will have both a lead and student facilitator, with the latter reporting to the full NSREC audience.
NSREC will strive to balance representation from sign companies, planners, end users and academia. Sign companies are encouraged to invite their local planner(s), and college professors are encouraged to attend with students.
SFI’s vision of NSREC is “an important venue for all interested constituencies to discuss on-premise signage issues and concerns in positive, non-confrontational and research-driven dialogue.”
SFI further states, “UC is uniquely qualified to participate in these discussions due to the establishment of the James S. Womack/Gemini Chair of Signage and Visual Communications and the Terence M. Fruth/Gemini Chair of Signage Design and Community Planning. Both chairs were established through donations from Jim and Sharon Weinel, Gemini Inc., and are part of the nation’s first center for signage.”
Peer-reviewed research will be presented at the conference with numerous opportunities to interact with researchers on specific topics and their implications.
All conference materials will be available in a single, bound document for easy reference. Early registration for the conference is $225.
Extensive details about the speakers and their topics are available online at www.thesignagefoundation.org/conference/TopicsPresenters.