A Napa County Instragam trap is causing worries that it could become a death trap, and the county is considering moving its picturesque “Welcome” sign because of unsafe behavior by motorists and pedestrians seeking pictures of it.  

Wine country visitors who trek north up Highway 29 to visit the wineries are routinely delighted by the landmark “Welcome to this world famous wine growing region Napa Valley” sign. This sign has greeted visitors since 1949. But in the smartphone and selfie era, the sign is apparently causing the unintended hazard of motorists just plain stopping in the middle of the road to snap pictures, pedestrians running across the the busy Highway 29 to pose by it, and other safety hazards caused by people eager to take pictures of the sign with little regard for road safety.

There are no documented accidents, yet, but the Napa County Board of Supervisors wants to keep it that way. The Chronicle reports the board will consider moving the sign. (The Chron reports they were scheduled to discuss the item at Tuesday night's meeting, but the Santa Rosa Press Democrat has the update that “it was pushed off the agenda and will be taken up at a future meeting.”). The sign is currently stationed outside the outside Robert Mondavi Winery, and the trade group Napa Valley Vintners is urging the board to move it to another spot at Markham Vineyards north of Yountville, which has a turnabout spot.

“Up until fairly recently, it was innocuous,” Napa Valley Vintners VP of industry relations Rex Stults tells the Chronicle. “But with social media becoming so popular, it’s now become one of the must-visit places when you come to Napa Valley. I can’t think of a time during the day when there’s not people out front taking photos.”

The move would coincide with the construction of a Napa Valley Vine Trail, which hopes to complete “a 47-mile, walking & biking trail system connecting the entire Napa Valley - from Vallejo to Calistoga.”

The board’s vote would just be a proposal to Caltrans, and the Chronicle reports that Caltrans “would ultimately be responsible for deciding whether to move it.” Though the Press Democrat quotes a board of supervisors staff report that argues they don’t really need sign-off from Caltrans — but they do want consensus, saying “all parties desire to work together to improve the parking, traffic flow, and sharing of the site.”

There’s also another, identical “Welcome” sign for southbound travelers on Highway 29, about four miles south of Calistoga, but that sign has not caused any ruckus, and there are no plans to move it.

Related: On BottleRock Stage, Lizzo Reacts to 'Choke the Woke' Sign Outside Napa Home [SFist]

Image: Oleg Alexandrov via Wikimedia Commons

Richmond Blog and David Gallagher bring your attention to an old Vess Cola sign revealed on the side of a building damaged in a fire at Clement and 12th Avenue.

Richmond Blog reports:

"The 'Good?…it’s Perfect!' ad is on the side of the building adjacent to the Archive’s annex building near Clement and Funston, which has a restaurant, Taishan Cafe, on the ground floor and apartments above. The entire building has been closed off until repairs are made from the fire."

Vess Cola is still around, by the way. Manufactured and distributed mainly in the St. Louis, Missouri, it comes in such wonderfully vulgar flavors as cream, orange, lemon-lime (the uncola, if you will), cherry cola, black cherry, pineapple, peach, piña colada, strawberry, grape, blue raspberry, and kiwi-strawberry.

In an effort to help fund the renovation of SoMa's jarringly adorable South Park, the actual South Park sign will be available for auction. Bidding starts at $1,000!

Also, for those of you living in South Park (near SFist headquarters!), there will be an photo exhibit tonight at Kim Pfabe's Sugarcane called "Faces of South Park" featuring familiar faces around the hood. Runs from 6-8 pm. Do check it out.

While some might argue that the modern design doesn't necessarily match the building, we are swooning over Twitter's new signage outside their headquarters. You like? Well, we do. So sleek, so fresh, so lowercase.

Doug Bowman, creative director at Twitter, says of the new sign, "The new @twitter HQ sign is an homage to the civic importance of its predecessor." Indeed. Twitter, if you recall, moved from SoMa to MidMarket last year taking over the old SF Mart spot.

To check out the sign yourself, head over to 1355 Market (at Ninth).

[h/t Kevin Montgomery]

Perhaps spurred but its far more logo-curious neighbor Google, Yahoo is launching a new logo after a 30 day countdown that will feature one iteration of its hideous purple logo per day.

Why the ramp-up? Perhaps it's to ease people into the concept of a new logo and avoid a Gap-style rebellion from outraged graphic designers, or to drum up awareness for what chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt calls a "renewed sense of purpose and progress at Yahoo." Whatever the reason, Yahoo users will witness a monthlong parade of new logos that will culminate in the reveal of a new, permanent logo that will retain the old logo's characteristic purpleness and unwarranted exclamation mark.

Here's the "30 Days of Yahoo" promo video complete with peppy, aspirational soundtrack.

[FastCo]

Microsoft unveiled a fresh new logo on Thursday, their first signage makeover in 25 years. The crisper, blockier new look prefaces the company's release of Windows 8 set to go live on October 26. You like?

SFist asked San Francisco-based designer Alissa Mach to give us her impression of the new logo. While admitting to finding it an overall cleaner look, she's "still not in love with it," adding that "the best logos never have to be redesigned with a full overhaul (e.g., Apple, Coke, McDonalds). They only tweak them so the changes are barely noticeable." As for the company itself, Microsoft said the redesign "represents a new era for Microsoft" and that new Microsoft logo "takes its inspiration from our product design principles while drawing upon the heritage of our brand values, fonts and colors."

A brief video about their new look:

Micosoft goes on to point out, with all of the pluck and vim of a business graduate student, that logo comes replete with two components: the logotype and the symbol. "For the logotype, we are using the Segoe font which is the same font we use in our products as well as our marketing communications," the company notes. "The symbol is important in a world of digital motion (as demonstrated in the video above.) The symbol's squares of color are intended to express the company's diverse portfolio of products."

"Can't help loving that man o' mine..." by Darwin Bell.

Work on dismantling the semi-iconic Ellis Brooks Chevrolet sign at 1395 Van Ness began over the weekend. Erected in 1955, the sign, according to the people SFist spoke to at Ellis-Brooks, "will have to be destroyed."

Ellis Brooks will move nearby to a smaller building while the old space will house a brand-spanking-new Nissan-Infiniti showroom.

During demolition to expand the Bayview library on Third Street, a 1920s sign for Boss of the Road work clothes was exposed. "The sign dates from before 1921, based on San Francisco Assessor's records for the demolished building," reports photographer David Gallagher. "Here's a 1928 shot of the street from the Jesse Brown Cook Collection at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library."

Nifty.

If your entire world has been thrown off axis over Starbucks new logo, fear not, loyal patrons. The coffee mammoth will walk you through the change in a minute and a half long video on their website. The new logo is pretty much their old logo, sans their name around it. The mermaid, thankfully, is still intact. Ta-da. But what say you, yes or no? Do you approve?

A daunting Twin Peaks by kapshure.

"[Insert Gunshots Here]" by Plug 1.

Here's another set of local signage that photogs captured in all of their clever, weathered, colorful, informative and matter-of-fact glory. Enjoy.