Welcome to our Hollywood Sign Generator! Whether you’re looking for a background for your desktop, a nameplate to print for your door, or an image to share on social media, our tool can help you design the perfect sign.
How to Use Our Hollywood Sign Generator
- Enter your text. Type in the text you’d like to have displayed on your image. Our tool can accommodate up to 14 characters.
- Choose if you’d like to remove the watermark. If you’d like for the ‘Word Finder’ logo to be removed from the bottom right corner of the image, you can check the ‘remove watermark’ box.
- Click the picture icon to toggle between background image options. We have two different options for backgrounds. Click the picture icon on the photo to toggle between photos and pick the background which looks best to you.
- Click ‘Generate sign.’ Once you’re satisfied with the appearance of your sign, you can click the ‘generate sign’ button and you’ll be brought to a separate page where you can download your image or share it on various social media platforms.
History of the Hollywood Sign
Though the Hollywood sign is now synonymous with the glitz and glamor of Hollywood fame, it was originally a symbol of something much simpler: a suburban housing development. The development, dubbed ‘Hollywoodland,’ was located in the hills above Los Angeles and aimed to provide more spacious living for its residents. The sign, which originally read ‘Hollywoodland,’ was created as advertising for the neighborhood, and was only intended to stand for a year and a half.
But shortly after the sign was erected, the film industry in California took off. The sign was allowed to stand as a symbol of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and it quickly gained in popularity as a tourist attraction. Still, because the sign was only designed for short-term use, the sign deteriorated rapidly. Letters cracked and became battered by weather, and in the 1940s, the letter ‘H’ on the sign was destroyed. Stories differ about the cause of the destruction, with some speculating that the sign’s caretaker lost control of his car and drove straight into it. When the City of Los Angeles Park Department rebuilt the sign in 1949, they removed the ‘land’ portion of the sign. They hoped the new sign would better represent the town of Hollywood as a whole, rather than the specific, small housing development of Hollywoodland.
Still, the sign continued to deteriorate. In 1978, a series of donors funded a new, more permanent sign. This sign still requires periodic maintenance — mainly refurbishment every few decades, to replace the white paint peeling from its metal surface — but generally, it’s in much more stable condition than the original sign.
Controversy over the Hollywood Sign
Though the Hollywood sign is an iconic symbol of Los Angeles’ film industry, it has attracted its fair share of controversies over the years. Most recently, ongoing battles have been sparked over tourist access to the Hollywood sign. There are many residential developments around the Hollywood sign, including in the area of the original Hollywoodland. For residents, the continued encroachment of tourists visiting the sign has become a nuisance. These residents have raised safety concerns about the traffic, pointing out that the narrow, winding roads around the Hollywood sign are ill-suited to the many large tourist buses which now pass through the area daily.
Still, tourists and those dependent on tourist business argue that it’s unfair for those who live near the sign to dictate who is allowed to view the sign from public land. It remains unclear which camp will win this argument in the end, though the City of Los Angeles has begun restricting access to some trails around the sign.
Feedback
What do you think about our Hollywood Sign Generator? Was this tool useful for you, or are there features you’d like to see added? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out using the ‘Contact Us’ page linked below to share your suggestions.