Artkraft Strauss is a sign design and consulting company headquartered in
Manhattan, New York
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
. Throughout the 20th century, the company was the preeminent designer and creator of
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
's iconic signs and displays. These included the “smoking”
Camel
A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...
sign, which wafted giant smoke rings over the Square; the
Bond Clothing Stores display, a block-long extravaganza with a perpetual waterfall; and the high-
neon
Neon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is the second noble gas in the periodic table. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with approximately two-thirds the density of ...
north-Square “spectaculars” created for Canadian Club and Admiral Television. For almost a century, Artkraft Strauss was also responsible for the annual midnight
ball drop that signaled the new year’s arrival.
History
Artkraft Strauss began as Strauss Signs. Founded in 1897 by artisan Benjamin Strauss, the company furnished New York’s retailers with posters and painted show cards. By the 1910s and 20s, Strauss signs, applying the innovative methods of a Russian immigrant named
Jacob Starr, had become the Square’s principal builder of theater marquees and entertainment displays, including the original marquee for the
New Amsterdam Theatre
The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater at 214 West 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street, at the southern end of Times Square, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Manhattan in New York City, New Yor ...
. In the 1920s Starr left Strauss to start his own engineering firm in association with the Artkraft Company of Lima, Ohio, a leading maker of neon lighting, a newly minted technology. Starr formed Artkraft-New York, and in 1931 merged with his old employer, Strauss, creating Artkraft Strauss. The company occupied its block-wide manufacturing facility at 57th Street and the West Side Highway for 75 years, until 2001, when it moved its operations to Queens. By the 1950s, Artkraft Strauss had dominated the outdoor advertising market in Times Square, and was known worldwide.
Artkraft Strauss maintained its singular presence in Times Square after neon had been eclipsed by electronic technologies, a process that began in the 1980s, and was thus involved in the area’s rebirth after years of deterioration. Chief among its work from this period are the block-long news and stock tickers on the
Morgan Stanley Building, and the 1992
Coca-Cola sign in the northern part of Times Square, which featured state-of-the-art digital technology. It also rebuilt the
Pepsi-Cola sign in
Long Island City
Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...
,
Queens
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
, in 1993. After divesting itself of its manufacturing facilities and the majority of its outdoor advertising locations in 2006, Artkraft Strauss became a design and project management consultant. It also established an archive of its photos and other memorabilia, a collection spanning over a century of
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
commercial and esthetic history. Today, the company maintains a small number of billboards, and provides a variety of sign designer and consulting services to architects, historians, designers, and other outdoor advertising companies.
The works of Artkraft Strauss are not limited to just
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. It fabricated the 120-by-70-foot (36.58-by-21.34-
meter
The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
) neon sign for the
Domino Sugars plant in
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
's
Inner Harbor
The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark in Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". The Inner Harbo ...
which was first illuminated on April 25, 1951. The neon tubing was replaced by
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...
lighting when the sign was modernized in 2021.
Cassie, Ron. "When the Domino Sugars Sign First Went Up in 1951, There Was No Fanfare," ''Baltimore'' (magazine), May 2021.
Retrieved May 7, 2021
References
{{Reflist
Bibliography
* McKendry Joe, "One Times Square: A Century of Change at the Crossroads of the World," David R. Godine, 2012
* Darcy Tell, ''Times Square Spectacular,'' Smithsonian Books, 2007
* Lynne B. Sagalyn, ''Times Square Roulette,'' The MIT Press, 2001
* Tama Starr and Edward Hayman, ''Signs and Wonders,'' Currency Doubleday, 1998
* Kenneth T. Jacobson, ''The Encyclopedia Of New York,'' Yale University Press, 1995
* William R. Trevor, ''Inventing Times Square,'' Russel Sage Foundation, 1991
External links
Official Website
Custom Signs Website
Anaheim Sign Company
Guide to the Artkraft Strauss records at the New York Public Library
Signage companies
Neon
Companies based in New York City
Mass media companies of the United States