G len Guyett spent decades lighting up the Valley. Over 40 years, the prolific artist and designer created some of Phoenix’s most iconic signs. They rose above streets and highways and became beloved local landmarks. Many remain etched in the memories of longtime Valley residents, even if the signs themselves have long since vanished. Guyett died on Jan. 5 at his home in Mesa from prostate cancer. He was 97. Guyett’s work was unique, kitschy, memorable and often larger than life. From the 1950s onward, he designed dozens of towering, neon-drenched signs across the Valley. Bill Johnson’s Big Apple along Van Buren Street. My Florist on McDowell Road. Tempe nightclub JD’s. Famed motor lodges like the Kon Tiki Hotel and Mesa’s Buckhorn Baths. Most were products of their moment. Born of midcentury Phoenix, they boasted modern lines, playful themes and plenty of glowing neon built for drivers in motion. Each beckoned Valley residents and visitors, and helped to define a growing city’s identity. Alison King, a Phoenix historian and midcentury modern guru, says Guyett’s work unapologetically embraced its era. “How would I describe his work? Joyful. Entertaining. Unabashed. Monumental,” King says. “He really liked to make a statement, and many of his works are so magnificent.” Only a handful of Guyett’s creations remain today, including the jester- adorned sign at now-defunct Grand Avenue nightclub Mr. Lucky’s and the Shamrock Farms display along Interstate 17. Arizona historian Marshall Shore says Guyett’s signs are unmistakable land- marks that became the stuff of local lore for Valley lifers. “When you drive around the city, it’s hard to miss signs that he’s created,” Shore says. “If you drive by and haven’t lived here long, you won’t know they’re a Glen Guyett sign. They’re testaments to old-school Phoenix and another time in the city’s history.” Local designer Jim Bolek says Guyett’s influence went far beyond just dreaming up signage. “Without really realizing it at the time, Glen was what we’d now call an environ- mental graphic designer,” Bolek says. “He wasn’t just making signs. He was creating places, landmarks that shaped how people experienced the city.” Guyett’s work helped create a sense of place at a time when Phoenix was figuring out what, exactly, it wanted to be. “His work is public work,” she says. “Just like public art, it has exposure to anybody riding through that part of town. Because it’s so monumental and easy to see from the street, it helps us position ourselves in the Valley and know where we are.” From KCMO to PHX Guyett’s flair for art and design took shape long before he came to Arizona. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1928, his paintings won numerous art contests while he packed his high school schedule with math classes, fueled by dreams of becoming an architect. “He really loved math and was great at it,” Joyce Guyett, one of his five daughters, says. Following a stint studying drafting at an engineering school, Guyett enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute on a two-year scholarship he won after his paintings were exhibited at Pittsburgh’s Andrew Carnegie Institute. In 1946, Guyett began designing commercial signs, first in Kansas City and later relocating to Arizona. He moved to Phoenix in 1951 with his wife, Doris, to escape the cold weather. One of his first gigs was working for the Electrical Advertising Agency, where his creations included a 12-by-13-foot map of Arizona in 1954 inside the state legislature. Guyett eventually landed at Myers & Leiber Sign Company, where he spent the next 14 years. He became the company’s art director, designing and creating works that became unmistakable Phoenix landmarks. One of his earliest projects there was updating Mesa’s Buckhorn Baths Motel during an early ’50s remodel. In addition to designing the motel’s iconic neon sign, Guyett left his mark inside the property. “He wasn’t just doing their sign,” Shore says. “He also helped install cabinets and painted scenes on the walls of the lobby.” Built for the road Neon signage surged in the 1950s alongside the rise of car culture. Guyett designed scores of neon signs for Valley businesses, particularly along major thoroughfares like Van Buren Street, where businesses clamored to be noticed. “Neon was a hot-ticket item at that point,” Shore says. “There were so many companies that were doing signs in those days and people pretty much realized you had to have an eye-catching neon sign to thrive.” Speaking to King’s website, Modern Phoenix, in 2011, Joyce Guyett recalled the precision and inspiration her father brought to every project. “Ideas would be drafted by Glen in the form of a drawing or model to scale and painted to look exactly like the finished product,” she said then. “Everyone loved these creations and they closed many deals. Glen then created the final design and did the math that made the sign sound for wind and stress factors. His influence on Van Buren signage was to bring the newest sign technology to a small Western town with innovative modern ideals.” A few miles north along Camelback Road, Courtesy Chevrolet’s iconic sign is another local midcentury landmark that Shore claims Guyett helped create. The towering, arrow-shaped display debuted in the mid-1950s, pairing a Googie-leaning form with shimmering twinkle lights. While a Courtesy Chevrolet spokesperson credits the design to Millie Fitzgerald, wife of dealership co-founder Ed Fitzgerald, Shore says Guyett’s finger- prints are likely there based on the tech- nology involved. “There’s always been debate about whether he was involved with the Courtesy Chevrolet sign,” Shore says. “The thing about Glen’s signs is, if it has twinkle lights, it was something he helped dream up. That was a skill he brought with him from Kansas City.” BY BENJAMIN LEATHERMAN >> p 12 Dim the Lights for Iconic Phoenix sign designer Glen Guyett. The Glen Guyett-designed sign at the now-demolished Bill Johnson’s Big Apple in Phoenix. (Benjamin Leatherman)
