With the coffee spilled and the procrastination bug defeated, I sit down to type, ah, I mean, write. I’m fascinated by arrows so, really, it’s a great topic to explore. For some, they’re background noise or invisible. For me, they scream, always pointing things out or trying to get me to go somewhere. I marvel at their abilities. After revealing this obsession, it’s a good time to make sense of my arrow fixation but that’s proving impossible. Instead, I’ll rely on the thousands of words generated by the photos I post. You know that old saying about how many words a picture is worth. The effort to explore my arrow infatuation is the making of a future blog post that I know you are already anticipating. My ultimate goal is to see you fall in love with arrows like I have.

My good friend and cross country rival from the Pittsburgh Orbit has written about arrows and what he calls arrow collecting. This inspired another blogger. I include links for the one percent of the one percent who need to see additional arrows, proof that there are arrow appreciators out there. Working on an angle for my arrow approach, I finally saw multiple variations of a functional arrows. I kept noticing these arrows, often under numbers on mailboxes. Their job is to point towards the house that the mailbox belongs to. I can only guess the necessity of this. My best conjecture is pizza related. Deliveries need to get to the right place.

Look around. Arrows are everywhere, as if Cupid has a full quiver and bad aim. What they’re saying is up to your interpretation. They can contain clever design elements or suggest you “stand over there,” regardless, you’ll soon be doing some arrow collecting of your own. To the unenlightened, arrows might be just arrows but it’s about what those arrows are trying to communicate and how they’re doing it. If they look good they get noticed.

The phenomenon, as seen by this triangle on a stick, says the box is here but the house lives across the street.

In this example, the house is behind the mailbox.

A classic example of arrow lighting so it can’t be unseen.

This sign points out the Tesla dealership because the numbers on the actual building are probably hard to find.

Multiple bonus points for what looks to be a homemade sign with store bought letters. The arrow’s tail is extra sleek.

This stylish arrows seems to have attracted another arrow making whatever they are pointed at hard to miss.

An understated arrow does its job with a classic flag matching red background.