This lecture series invites new and established voices to share their stories, knowledge, and ideas with the community. This spring, we spotlight community-driven creative spaces and multidisciplinary design practices, highlighting how these groups foster collaboration, social impact, and cultural dialogue within their communities and beyond.

Join us as we explore the role of design in building and sustaining community, and how hybrid creative practices are shaping the future of creative work.

Type Electives Virtual Lecture Series:

The Noble Path: Preserving New York's Vernacular Signs and Stories

Signs are the storytellers of New York; even after a business shutters, its history lingers in the form of peeling paint and discarded panels. In this talk, David Barnett—cofounder of Noble Signs and Director of the New York Sign Museum—dives into the city’s rich vernacular signage tradition. Barnett examines how signs act as both design artifacts and vessels of collective memory, preserving the human stories and visual language that give the city its soul. Drawing from his work at Noble Signs and its growing museum of vintage signage and advertising, Barnett makes a compelling case for why saving old signs isn't just about nostalgia. It is about providing vital community resources to share the craft of sign-making, collecting a shared visual history to ensure no story is forgotten, and creating positive change on every block in New York City.

This session will feature a short presentation, followed by a conversation moderated by Type Electives and an open Q&A for attendees.

Send us your questions through our Instagram @typeelectives

The event will be hosted online via Zoom.

We look forward to having you with us!

David Barnett

David Barnett (he/him) is a graphic artist and preservationist from New York City. As a creative director, he has worked in design, illustration, apparel, publishing, branding, and signage. In 2013, he co-founded his own studio called Noble Signs, specializing in branding and signage rooted in New York vernacular lettering traditions.

As an extension of this mission, in 2019 he created the New York Sign Museum, a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to preserving 20th century advertising from the New York metro area. He is a graduate of the Type@Cooper Extended Program, and a recipient of the TDC Ascenders award. His work has been profiled in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Gothamist, artnet, WNYC, Hyperallergic, ABC News, NBC New York, NHK, and more.

Instagram: @dbwuzhere, @noblesigns, @nysignmuseum