New Woodcut Sign Installation Reminds Fishtowners to Smile

The world is full of signs, which ones are guiding you?

Love this new little woodcut, stenciled smile sign by Typograff.e, located at Berks street and Frankford avenue in Fishtown!

On their Instagram, Typograff.e describes themselves as a, “Graphic Designer with a thing for hand lettering, typography, and street art.” While I’m not sure I’ve personally seen this artist’s work around Philly before, their IG does have nine posts going back nearly a year. So, I can only hope/expect that as the warmer days return and street artists start returning to the streets more frequently that I’ll see more of this artist’s woodcut sign work around town because, frankly, this made me smile and damn if we don’t need more of that. :)

P.s. I’m from Fishtown, like I grew up here (Holy Name/Adaire,) yet I’m not sure I’ve every heard or used the term “Fishtowners.” But that seems right, right?

UPDATE: Immediately after tweeting a link to this post, a person on Twitter responded with a sentiment that I think many others will share and may be something the artist might want to consider when creating new work. That person on Twitter is Toni McIntyre, someone I’ve been following for a while, and someone who often supports Streets Dept content and the artists I document. Within just 15 minutes of our tweets, Toni’s had a good number of people favoriting and retweeting hers. Clearly this is the way this installation is making some people feel, so I wanted to share Toni’s words since this sentiment was not reflected in my original write-up above:

When I asked Toni if I could screenshot her tweets to share, she told me to go for it adding: “Yeah I think it’s an important conversation to have. And it’s a lived experience that informs how one looks at that work that’s shared by a whole lotta people.”

For some greater context on why this installation is having the reaction it is with Toni and some others commenting on Twitter, look no further than Tatyana Fazlalizadeh’s Stop Telling Women To Smile ongoing street art project.

As Toni points out, it was very likely not the intent of this smile sign artist to make anyone feel this way. But that’s exactly why I’m hoping that by sharing Toni’s thoughts it can work as a form a good, critical feedback. Something crucial in art and life!