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Every known Laundesigns title, in registration order. These are the cartoon laundromat signs Schorr Sign Service of Queens sold to coin laundries from 1960: DON’T DYE HERE, WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLE, BE AN ANGEL and the rest. Registration numbers and the figure descriptions come from the Catalog of Copyright Entries and the Copyright Office card catalog. The wording is as read off surviving signs or the 1961 to 1963 trade ads.
Sixteen of the eighteen have a picture. Two have never been seen. Click any image for full size. Trade ad captions open the issue on the Internet Archive, which lends these scans only to print disabled readers. Every sign photograph in the file is on this page; the full photos, ads and records are in the Research Archive. Know one that isn’t pictured? Report it.
Where a clearer AI reproduction exists, it sits to the right of the original photo or ad and is labeled as a faithful digital recreation. These were made to help a vector artist redraw the set; they are not the original artwork. Click any image to open it full size in a new tab.
The signs
Each sign has its own page with photos of the originals, where each was seen, the copyright record and the AI reproduction. The pictures below are the AI reproductions.
BE AN ANGELK58997, 15 Mar 1960 · 3 images
DID YOU SAY CHANGE?K58993, 15 Mar 1960 · 2 images
DON’T DYE HEREK58996, 15 Mar 1960 · 5 imagesSeen this one?
WE’RE SORRYK58995, 15 Mar 1960 · 2 images
YA BETTER WATCH OUTK58994, 15 Mar 1960 · 2 images
DRY? (poster)K59631, 21 Apr 1960 · 2 images
HERE’S HOW (poster)K59632, 21 Apr 1960 · 2 imagesSeen this one?
THIS COULD BE YOUK63966, 1 Nov 1961 · 4 images
THINKING OF YOU, ALWAYSK63967, 1 Nov 1961 · 2 images
HOWDY, NEIGHBORK63968, 1 Nov 1961 · 3 images
SAVE YOUR MONEYK63969, 1 Nov 1961 · 2 images
DON’T BE BASHFULK63970, 1 Nov 1961 · 2 images
WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLEK63971, 1 Nov 1961 · 5 images
WE NEVER SLEEPK63972, 1 Nov 1961 · 2 images
CAREFUL NOW!Not located in the register · 2 images
Uncle Sam, I’VE GOT YOUR NUMBER (ad mascot)Not registered; © 1960 on the ad · 2 imagesTwo colorways
Documented: surviving signs come in a yellow scheme (rounded white panels, yellow caption boxes, no metal frame in the photographs seen) and a pale blue scheme (thin bright metal edge frame, maker line Laundesigns, N.Y.C. © 1961). Inferred, not proven: two production runs, with the framed blue series matching the 1962 ads for silk-screened Marlite in stainless steel frames. The 1961 ads never mention a material or frame.
How to tell a real one
Glossy plastic-faced hardboard, screen-printed flat enamel, about 18 inches wide by 48 inches tall (measured with a tape in a marketplace photo of the blue series), often a thin stainless edge frame. Look for the small maker line in the caption area. A sign on paper, card or tin is a different product or a reproduction.
An open file on the Laundesigns of Schorr Sign Service, Glendale, Queens. Sign images are faithful digital recreations made from photos of the originals; each sign page links to the record. The recreations were generated with Grok, chosen after comparing image quality across several AI models.
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