Scenes and Logos from America

A few images from Middle America.

First, this logo, seen along an interstate highway:


I guess it's not so much the logo as the name itself. I read it as s'DUMP-er, which made no sense, but it was all I could think of. But no, it's SIDE-dumper, get it? It's a dump truck that dumps sideways.

Second, there's nothing like a logo that tries to throw a large capital letter where it doesn't belong:


In this case, the designer has given us a new state, Lillinois. Maybe that's where Lil Wayne comes from.

Then there's this entrance to a Holiday Inn Express, which is a design disaster:


I'll bet they built this glass vestibule with its doors facing front into the driveway. Then at some point, to make it both wheelchair- and roller-bag-accessible, they closed off those doors and put the doors on the sides where the sidewalk slopes down gently. Despite the metal railings, I still tried to walk into the front part.

And then there's that white type on the door. See it there near the right side of the photo? It says DOOR SWINGS OUT.

Any time a door has to tell you which way it opens, it's a design failure. You should just know how it opens from how it looks.

Finally, there's the pancake-making machine at the Holiday Inn Express. You press a button and a minute later it squeezes out two pancakes from between a set of rollers. It's a process that looks just a little too much like human elimination:


Making those pancakes is literally done with the press of a single button, after you put your plate on the counter as shown. My favorite part: the sign in the background reads "Children under 16 years of age may not operate the pancake machine without adult supervision."