Bus Carrell and the Family of Shapes
A site to preserve the history and design of the National Forest signs.
“Whoever designed these signs really gave a damn.”
— Charles Spencer Anderson
Meet Virgil “Bus” Carrell.
This is the man behind the National Forest signs. Read about him in the article on Atlas Obscura.
Think about it. A government agency created signs so remarkable people regularly stop to take photos of them.
The Family of Shapes:
The History of Bus
Carrell’s Forest Signs.
Featured in Forest History Today.
Bus called these signs a Family of Shapes.
Some are symmetrical. Others askew. Some have a cream-colored bar. Others don’t. They’re not the mass-produced cookie-cutter signs you’d expect from a government agency. They don’t all look the same. But they do all feel the same.
When you’re road tripping, be sure to say #thanksbus.
When you come across the Family of Shapes, help preserve Bus’s story by taking a picture and tagging it with #thanksbus.
What makes a good sign great? Bus explains in “Signs to Complement Natural Beauty.”
Dig into the original sketches.
Explore old photos of Bus behind the scenes.
