Less Can Be More When It Comes To Signage
Back in May I wrote about an Elmwood switcheroo where a few stores were trading places. One of the moves placed BeYouTiful in the former ShoeFly location (ShoeFly moved across the street). When I spoke to Jetaun Jones, owner of BeYouTiful, the first thing that she told me was that she was going to replace the original transom windows along Elmwood. For years, branding signage had been placed on top of the overhead windows, which meant that natural afternoon light was scarce (especially on the West side of Elmwood).
Yesterday I came across workers replacing the transom window glass. Once the glass is in, the building will look much like it did when it was first built. It's amazing how many shops on Elmwood, at one point in time, gave up on taking care of the transom windows and decided to cover them with signage. Over the last five years we have witnessed many of the transoms come back to life - a great example being Simon Salon and Vito's Barber at the corner of Breckenridge and Elmwood.
You can see the shop with covered transoms in this post. It will be nice to see what BeYouTiful will soon look like - let's hope more stores consider exposing the original facade details down the road. The end benefit certainly outweighs the initial investment.
BeYouTiful | 822 Elmwood Avenue | Buffalo, NY 14222 | (716) 887-2400
What Others Have To Say
What Do You Think?
Related Articles
-
The Wait is Almost Over - BR's New Site
As we mentioned in our previous post, we’re in the process of changing the Buffalo Rising site. We’re almost there as we expect to launch the new site on Friday, December 19th.
In the meantime, posting will be light as we log new stories in the new publishing system which will only be viewable when we launch on Friday.
As always, we appreciate our users’ patience as we make this transition but we promise it will be well worth it. With faster load times, a comment view … - Dec 18th 2008, 11:32am
- Continue Reading
- 5 Comments
-
A Kennedy Visits Buffalo
Caroline Kennedy was in town for a visit with our mayor yesterday. A possible choice to succeed US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Kennedy's name has been mentioned along with that of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo) and our own Byron Brown, among others.
Certainly, Kennedy has "been around politics" all of her life, which is to say she was born into a family of politicos and lived in the White House--neither of which would necessarily f … - Dec 18th 2008, 7:55am
- Continue Reading
- 32 Comments
-
Downtown Free Fare Zone May be Axed
Free light rail rides on downtown's above ground section could be derailed thanks to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's budget mess. That is the news coming out of a Buffalo Place meeting this morning. Facing a budget shortfall and reduced State operating assistance, the NFTA is scrambling for new revenue sources and is contemplating charging for rides along the lengthy downtown pedestrian mall.- Dec 17th 2008, 4:40pm
- Continue Reading
- 48 Comments
-
The NFTA Santa Ride
Well it is Christmas time in the city and the NFTA helped put people and especially children into the mood in a very festive and fun way. One of my favorite memories of childhood was taking the train downtown with my grandfather. I would gaze out the windows and watch the tunnel speed by. It always felt like we were going a million miles an hour.
Then there was the ability to stand up and walk around during the ride without the need to be strapped down. It was always a fun time … - Dec 17th 2008, 4:34pm
- Continue Reading
- Join the conversation
Comment Options
SignWizard
Your telling me! Working in the signage business I am amazed and how often a customer wants way to much sign or too busy of a sign that you can not read from where it is being viewed from.
Report this
TownLine
Natural light was always the biggest challenge with this space. Between the lack of transoms and that tree out front, it could look like a cave inside. This change will make a world of difference. Great example of 2 businesses who moved upward on the street and improved their spaces at the same time.
p.s. can we ban this tomwaters and his nonsense spam.
Report this
nb3004
@ townline: just click the avoid user button on one of his comments. every one of his comments will appear greyed out when you are logged in.
Report this
galaxyjay
Hey Tom...STFU!
Report this
sbrof
I agree with TownLine, these are two businesses who maybe just moved on the same street but are both improving the street for the betterment of their business and the street overall. Investment like this will pay off for many years for the elmwood properties and I am glad to see them make the moves. I have a gf who loves shoes, but never once that i know of went into shoefly because it was very uninviting. She would stop whenever they put stuff outside but the inside was so dark that you couldn't see in, which made it an 'unknown."
I think they will do much better in their new location and good luck to the shop going into their old location, the transoms were there for a reason, and will definitely help to brighten your store.
Report this
comptart_lws
well, to be frank, it didn't help the cave-like feeling, that the inside of the shoe store was painted black.
Report this