RVD: Squares are more boring than circles, and can be mistaken for anything. This marker would be unmistakable as a highway marker for the Bay state. A state name should be added, like on this shield. I used the italic version of Arrus BT font for a modern classic feel. The color is supposed to be a deep cranberry-like purple red which will stand out among the New England states and hopefully resist fading.
From 'Jaguar' James Allen : A portion of The Bay State showing The Bay.
Paul Schlichtman (Roads of Massachusetts ) sent in this shield featuring a minuteman and dark red numbers.
From Ernie Tripp: I have been working on my own ideas for Mass. for quite some time. Anyway, my design is fairly simple, it may not look like it at first, but its a clamshell. The 393 and 495 gifs each have a top banner, "MASS INTERLINK". These are for freeways that connect to the Interstates, but are currently numbered otherwise. For primary routes, I chose brown as the main color and turned the clamshell upside down. As with the Mass Interlink shield, the name of the road is at the bottom. For secondary routes, I used a similar color scheme as the standard county shield. I substituted purple for blue, so that I could use blue exclusively for the Interlink shield. I put the Town name on the top banner, since counties in Massachuesetts are irelevant. Alternately, a partial State outline can work. The route 26 shields are color coded. Red for Primary routes, Black for secondary ones. The Blue/Gold version is what I would use for a county route if we had them.
CCS: Thought I'd try my hand at the "Cranberry Theme". I really don't think the dark sign would work well on BGS's, but it looks reasonably spiffing as a stand-alone sign, and would work reasonably well, I think. The second sign is an alternate to the first or could be used as a plate on BGS's. Then you have a plain old green sign, prolly the cheapest to make, and more durable than the cranberries, since red tends to bleach out in the sun. The blue sign features a small tribute to Massachussets' seafaring heritage with the whale in the state shape.
Andrew Muck: Since Massachusetts is hard to do a good state outline for, and personally I got bored of making state outlines, I took the Mass Pike pilgrim hat and made an outline of that for the new Massachusetts sign, it was kind of hard to put a 3di in there, but it still looks better than that boring square they have.
D.C. Mitchel: This sign is my own little tribute to one of the greatest players baseball has ever seen. Of course, the man to whom I am referring to is the recently departed Ted Williams. My sign contains a baseball with the famous number nine in the center. The Ted Williams Memorial Expressway can also be identified as State Route 406, named after his record-breaking batting average in 1941. Here's looking at you, Ted!
From Ed Miessner: Like CCS, I thought I'd try my hand at Massachusetts signs since I grew up there! 1) 2) 3) 4) are modeled after the old cut-corners trailblazer guide signs that were on Bay State roads until the 70s. 1) could be for the Cranberry Highway that runs down to the Cape, 2) is for regular state highways, 3) is for the state parkways in and around Boston and 4) would be for town-maintained roads similar for the county roads in other states. Again, the route number is in canary yellow for high visibility. 5) 6) 7) are big green sign versions of 1) 2) and 3). 8) is based on the Mass. state flag and I think it's the classiest of the bunch! I used Humans521 BT font for the number. 9) would be the numbered town-maintained road that would accompany 8). 10) would be for Massachusetts Expressways that are neither Interstate or US Routes. And 11) is my interpretation of a pilgrim's hat sign, similar to Andrew muck's but with the number outside the hat.
Return to the Highway Makeover
This page last updated Wednesday, May 21, 2008