Sidewalk Stamp Update

Many designers have passion projects. Things they do outside of their day-to-day. Some of those are an effort to put extra cash in the pocket—the dream of the so-called Passive Income. Which, of course, isn’t passive. It still takes a lot of work to make something that people will purchase.

It seems my passion projects aren’t money-making endeavors. Today’s post is an update on one of those passion projects. I walk a lot for transportation. I live in a part of Denver where I can run many errands on foot without driving. This is relatively common in big cities but not so common in the Denver metro. I love that walking allows me to notice the visual complexity of a city. I get to see details I couldn’t notice in a car. One such detail is these lovely sidewalk stamps that seem all over the place. The design quality of these stamps is fantastic. It is a little exercise in branding. The information must be compact. There is usually space to add the year the concrete was poured. I have found a few made of metal plates placed in the concrete.

I will highlight a couple of my favorites here, and then you can jump to the full page to see all of them.

At some point, I would love to turn this into an interactive data visualization project. Reach out if you are a developer nerd wanting to collaborate. I would love to be able to sort by year and by concrete company quickly. I have included a few repeats in this update—the same concrete company in different years. The first one here is A.C. Toney. I love the typography of this stamp. The condensed type for “Cement Contr. Denver, Colo.”