We must stress that it's preliminary, but what you see above is the gist of the new Catskills-specific design that will soon be perched atop road signs throughout Catskill Park. It's the result of months of brainstorming by a crack team of town supervisors and tourism directors working with a graphic designer from the New York State Department of Transportation.
Like it? Don't like it? Have a better idea? Now is the time to say something, while the DOT is still tinkering with it.
The design above will be used on smaller signs, and the design below will appear over bigger ones.
The new signs are an incentive given to the Catskills by the DOT in exchange for abandoning the special yellow-on-brown signage that has been used here and in the Adirondacks for years. While the Catskills are giving up the yellow-and-brown signs, the Adirondacks are keeping them, thanks to a group of fierce admirers of the color scheme up north.
The DOT discovered that yellow-on-brown didn't have as many die-hard fans in the Catskills in March, when it held a meeting at Belleayre Mountain attended by several dozen town supervisors and tourism agencies. One of the attendees was Bill Rudge, the Natural Resources Supervisor for Region 3 of the Department of Environmental Conservation, who has since become one of the leaders of the new-logo project.
"In the Catskills, there was a much different reaction [than in the Adirondacks]," he says. "It was more like, "What is the alternative?"
A core group of the people who attended the meeting have been working on the new design ever since, Rudge says, and no one seems to be nostalgic for the yellow-and-brown days of yore.
"So far, the reaction has been almost unanimous that 'We like it; keep going,'" he says. He adds that the group is eager for feedback on the preliminary result.
As for when the new signs will actually begin appearing on local roads, Rudge says he isn't sure, because an implementation plan won't be created until the design is finalized. It's also unclear whether the state will install all the new signs at once or simply replace aging old yellow-and-brown signs with their new counterparts over time.
Peter Manning, a regional planner at the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, has also been involved in designing the new logo. He says that having the DOT install new signs is a chance to give overlooked Catskill attractions -- like Rochester Hollow on Matyas Rd. in Big Indian --more attention.
"Ninety percent of the people driving by that road have no idea that one of the most easily accessible and peaceful and family-oriented trailheads is a quarter of a mile up that road," he says. "The sign changeover becomes a way to get these places out there."
