cover with a view

Happy Manhole Monday! While snowed in over the weekend, I was thinking about how much I have missed traveling and my speaking engagements. It has always been something I have truly enjoyed and never once took for granted. As much as I have loved documenting pictures throughout my travels of the shiny neon, faded ghost sings, hand lettering, tiled entryways and historic signs, I’m sure it will come to no surprise to anyone who has read my blog posts that what I have missed most are the manhole covers. So I thought for today’s post, in honor of Manhole Monday, I’d show a few with a view. First up was this simplistic beauty found in Denver, CO:

I love how it perfectly captures the views in Denver and I love the extended kerning of the word. I think the tittle either got lost along the way or was dropped completely in the design phase. Either way, this design is very well executed. If I remember correctly, this guy was small…maybe half the size of a regular manhole cover. Teeny tiny perfection. Next up, Vegas!

There is so much packed into this guy including an airplane, the Hoover Dam, a few skyscrapers, and a Joshua Tree cactus! Not to mention the crazy spacing of the words surrounding the illustration. I mean, that’s like 5 views in one cover! This was taken on the historic Fremont St. Here’s a close up:

Wasn’t sure what to expect while walking around Madison, WI so you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon this beauty:

I did a google search to figure out what that was on the right side of the Capitol and learned that it’s a shadow that somehow got lost in translation? 😳 Here is the logo:

Moving on to the Home of the Blues, Memphis, TN. I can tell you right now, there is nothing blue about this cover. I can *almost* hear whistling in the background.

I think that’s a steamboat and I just love the detail they were able to capture. From steamboats to flowers, here’s my favorite cover I found in Milwaukee, WI:

This cover really stuck out and is so well done. Lastly, Omaha, Nebraska. This cover celebrates the incorporation of the city.

There is so much packed in here, the thick lines make it hard to see everything that’s going on. Here is the city seal illustration.

I think that is a bison head in the middle that looks kinda like a blob on the cover. Also, the vegetables under the dude with the shovel turned into ducks on the cover so that’s a fun update. As you can see, not all the details transferred over successful but it’s a valiant effort.

Until I can travel again, my photos from pre-covid will have to hold me over. Happy Manhole Monday!