Bandit Signs

Posted by Miss Cellania in Art on January 19, 2012 at 9:49 am

Huggie is bothered not only by the decline of his South Philadelphia neighborhood, but also by the numerous signs posted by shady businesses that prey on desperate residents who are strapped for cash.

As a street artist, I decided to fight back against the blight by creating my own humorous bandit signs and posting them up around the city.  I am aware that I might be contributing to the blight as well, but I really hope that my signs make people realize how ridiculous these advertisers are and help them take pride in their community. And if that doesn’t work, I hope it makes them laugh.

See more signs at his blog, Gorilla Upskirts. Link

 
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Curbside Haiku

Posted by Miss Cellania in Auto & Transportation on November 30, 2011 at 6:54 pm

A year ago, we told you about artist John Morse and his Roadside Haiku project in Atlanta. Now his talents have been commissioned for traffic signs in New York City! The New York City Department of Transportation has installed a collection of curbside signs written in haiku along with graphics designed by John Morse. The seventeen-syllable poetry warns drivers, pedestrians, and bikers to watch for safety hazards. Some also have QR codes. See more of them at core77. Link -via Metafilter

 
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15 Road Signs as Movies

Posted by Miss Cellania in Film on September 29, 2011 at 6:36 am

You’ll laugh at how well road signs work to illustrate movies we are all familiar with. Unreality magazine has a list of 15 posters that mashup films with common road signs gleaned from the Photoshop masters at Something Awful. Link

 
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Signs for Retirement Home Are Pretty, But Potentially Confusing

Posted by John Farrier in Art & Design, Design on September 20, 2011 at 7:11 pm

On the other hand, maybe trying to figure out where they are will help the residents of this Zürich retirement home will keep their minds active. Anyway, this design by Information Architects is certainly aesthetically appealing.

Link -via Swiss Miss

 
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Brilliantly Stupid Sign Graffiti

Posted by Jill Harness in Art, Art & Design on September 19, 2011 at 1:23 am

From Pedobears chasing children to “Stop Hammertime,” some graffiti artists have a great sense of humor. Happy Place has a lengthy collection of these reinterpreted signs for your viewing pleasure.

Link

 
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Hurricane Irene Store Signs

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on August 28, 2011 at 5:07 pm

Hurricane Irene is causing havoc along the east coast, but some business owners in its path retained their sense of humor, at least long enough to thumb their noses at the storm -just before evacuating. See a collection of such business signs at Buzzfeed. This one is my favorite. Link

 
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Delightfully Funny Altered Street Signs

Posted by Jill Harness in Art, Art & Design, Photography on August 3, 2011 at 2:29 am

I know altering street signs is one of the more dangerous forms of graffiti, but in most cases the changes are minor enough that the sign’s effect is still obvious they’re just a lot more funny now. WebUrbanist has a great collection of some of the funniest altered signs around.

Link

 
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Someone Quit

Posted by Miss Cellania in Business on July 15, 2011 at 7:24 am

A Taco Bell marquee in Depew, New York had an unusual message Thursday that was photographed (and censored for the news audience) before it was taken down. Apparently, an employee had quit.

A co-worker of the supposed sign maker at Taco Bell/KFC tells News 4 that apparently Adam is the name of a shift manager at the restaurant who denied the worker the Fourth of July off after they had worked 22 days straight, despite allowing others to have the day off.

This is one of those things that the overwhelming majority of people would never do, but we have all thought about it at one time or another. Link -via Fark

 
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11 Hilariously Overdramatic Signs

Posted by Jill Harness in Animals & Pets, Baby & Kids, Design, Living on June 30, 2011 at 10:19 pm

I don’t know where this sign is actually from, but it’s admittedly hilarious. It seems to be saying “don’t put your baby on the crocodile rail where it will become dinner.” Have you guys ever seen this or any of the other hilarious roadsigns from this 11 Points post?

Link

 
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A Sign Made from 5,000 Rocker Switches

Posted by John Farrier in Art & Design on June 17, 2011 at 4:29 am


This would be so much fun to play with! Valentin Ruhry made this huge sign for the Austrian Cultural Forum of New York. It will be on display there through September 5.

Link and Forum Website -via Colossal | Photos: Valentin Ruhry

 
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Follow the Rs and the Ls

Posted by Miss Cellania in Travel on May 30, 2011 at 8:14 am

In another example of strangers collaborating to share information online, Minnesotastan asked for an explanation for a confusing passage in the novel Free Air:

She rarely lost her way.  She was guided by the friendly trail signs — those big red R’s and L’s on fence post and telephone pole, magically telling the way from the Mississippi to the Pacific. (p.69)

At first glance, “L” and “R” would seem to mean “left” and “right”, but that wouldn’t help someone drive across the country. A commenter knew that “L” stood for the Lincoln Highway. With the help of reddit, we find out that “R” designates the Yellowstone Trail. Why they chose that letter instead of a “Y” is still a mystery. Link

 
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A Pedestrian’s Guide to the USA

Posted by Miss Cellania in Society & Culture on March 30, 2011 at 8:30 am

Shaun Sanders leads us through the different way US cities treat pedestrians, illustrated with pedestrian crossing signs. See the rest at Hipmunk Link -via Laughing Squid

 
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Hilarious Paper Street Signs

Posted by Jill Harness in Art, Design, Features, Neatorama Exclusives on March 30, 2011 at 5:03 am

We see “missing” and “found” posters all the time, but they usually are a source of sadness as a reminder that someone has lost a loved one or a pet. These nineteen posters featured on sidewalks around the globe are funny plays on the classic signs you’re used to seeing.

Cat Found

Is it just me or does this poster remind you of that old wives tale about the old woman who had a pet sewer rat and thought it was a dog?

Image via Dig Your Own Grave

Possum Found

Here’s a great twist on the poster above.

Image via Babyanimalz

Oregon Trail

Fans of the classic educational game are sure to recognize these types of options that come at a river (or street) crossing.

Image by Jeff Wysaski, featured on his website Pleated Jeans

Have You Seen This Cat

I have to admit, this cat is pretty darn awesome. Anyone know what breed it is?

Update: Thank you to Miss C and Sir P-S, who have pointed out it is a Palla’s Cat.

Image created by Running Amok Zine via Lizzy Stewart [Flickr]

more …

 
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Word Lens

Posted by Miss Cellania in Gadgets, Hacks & Mods, Languages, Video Clips on December 17, 2010 at 5:01 am


(YouTube link)

How cool is this? We don’t post a lot of iPhone apps, because so many people do not have iPhones (myself for one). However, this is the first app I’ve seen that actually makes me want an iPhone (not that I’m going to buy one). The Word Lens app is a free download, but the dictionaries are $5 each. So far, English to Spanish and Spanish to English are the only dictionaries available. It works with short phrases like signs, not with large blocks of text, like books. Link -via reddit

 
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Non-Sign

Posted by John Farrier in Art & Design on November 27, 2010 at 2:33 pm

The Seattle-based design firm Lead Pencil Studio created this installation at the US-Canadian border. It’s supposed to give the impression of a billboard:

the sculpture is made from small stainless steel rods that are assembled together to create the negative space of a billboard. while most billboards draw attention away from the landscape ‘non-sign II’ frames the landscape, focusing attention back on it.

Link via Dude Craft | Studio Website | Photo: Design Boom

 
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Campaign Signs May Become Collectors Items

Posted by Miss Cellania in Politics on November 8, 2010 at 10:15 am

You must admit it’s a name to remember: Young Boozer III. Boozer won the race for Alabama state treasurer, despite a rash of campaign sign thefts early in the campaign. It appears that college students wanted the signs for their dorms and frat houses. Boozer’s campaign manager Glenda Allred said there were still signs left to be picked up after the election.

Allred said the name, and the signs, have led to some odd requests, particularly people from out of state who requested signs even though they had no say in the election.

One request came from a journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “He came down to cover the BP oil spill and saw the sign as he was going down the interstate,” Allred said. “He called saying how he read about the candidate, saw the website and was following the race.”

The future value of the signs is uncertain. Link -via Arbroath

 
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Go Where? Sex, Gender, and Toilets

Posted by Miss Cellania in Living on September 2, 2010 at 9:22 pm

Restroom signs say much the same thing all over the world, but the way they say it says a lot about how view the differences between men and women. Why are women so often depicted as wearing skirts? And why do we have to use separate bathrooms anyway?

Women’s and men’s washrooms: we encounter them nearly every time we venture into public space. To many people the separation of the two, and the signs used to distinguish them, may seem innocuous and necessary. Trans people know that this is not the case, and that public battles have been waged over who is allowed to use which washroom. The segregation of public washrooms is one of the most basic ways that the male-female binary is upheld and reinforced.

As such, washroom signs are very telling of the way societies construct gender. They identify the male as the universal and the female as the variation. They express expectations of gender performance. And they conflate gender with sex.

Link -via Metafilter

 
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50 Welcome Signs From 50 States

Posted by Queuebot in Pictures, Travel on June 10, 2010 at 9:40 am

You know how you drive long distances and it always feels good to see a state welcome sign, because it’s another milestone in the journey (or maybe your destination)? Now you can see all of them! Here’s a collection of welcome signs from all 50 of the United States of America (and all on 1 page).

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by xtremeBlogger.

 
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Signs Spotted in Libraries

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on April 16, 2010 at 6:51 am

The list is labeled “Passive Aggressive Library Signs”, but they seem pretty straightforward and useful to me. They clearly communicate the frustration of the sign maker, and some are downright hilarious! I would love to know the story behind the sign pictured here. Link

(image credit: Flickr user rockcreek)

 
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The War Over Exit Signs

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on March 12, 2010 at 10:10 am

Should the US ditch the classic red “exit” sign and replace it with a green man? There are arguments both for and against. For the red:

The contrast between the letters and the background renders it highly legible, the illumination stresses the importance of the message, and the color is evocative of both fire and fire-safety devices (fire extinguishers, fire engines, fire alarms, and the like).

But in other parts of the world, pictograms rule. The “running man” sign was designed by Yukio Ota and adopted internationally for exits a quarter century ago!

The sign’s wordlessness means it can be understood even by people who don’t speak the local language. And the green color, they argue, just makes sense. Green is the color of safety, a color that means go the world over. Red, on the other hand, most often means danger, alert, halt, please don’t touch. Why confuse panicked evacuees with a sign that means right this way in a color that means stop?

Slate lays out the arguments for both and a history of exit signs in one chapter of a six-part series on signs. Links to all the chapters are found at the top of each. Link -via Simply Left Behind

 
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Drug House Advertising … by the Cops!

Posted by Alex in Advertising, Crime & Law on February 5, 2010 at 3:35 pm

Getting drugs sure got a whole lot easier for Belleville, Washington Illinois residents. The police there place signs to let everybody know exactly where to buy them!

The police have only two signs, and when they use them at a location, it’ll likely only be for a day, and only during daytime hours. However, the sign will be up again on West H Street today because police used
it for only part of Wednesday. The signs are heavily weighted, which police expect will deter people from stealing them.

When asked whether he thinks the signs will advertise where people can buy drugs, Sax said that those buying the drugs probably already knew to get them there in the first place.

Link

 
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Absurdist Protest Signs

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on January 30, 2010 at 9:36 pm

The Westboro Baptist Church {wiki} held a demonstration in front of the Twitter office in San Francisco on Thursday. Even more people showed up for a counter protest, featuring the best protest signs I’ve ever seen. See more signs at Laughing Squid. Link

(image credit: Rubin Starset)

 
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Tanks A Lot

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on October 6, 2009 at 11:44 am

Businesses all over look for memorable names. Many go with puns, since a funny play on words will stick in your mind. Tanks A Lot is a blog full of punny business names, like restaurants named Beau Thai, Thai Ranosaurus, Thai Foon, or Tongue Thai’d (wonder what kind of food they serve?) or eyeglass stores named Specs Appeal or You and Eye. Link

 
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Pictograms

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on July 31, 2009 at 9:00 pm


Are you familiar with the International System of Typographic Picture Education? It’s what we call pictograms. The system featuring a round-headed man was invented by Austrian philosopher Otto Neurath and German artist Gernd Arntz, who called them “Isotypes” for short. The round-headed man became popularly known as “Helvetica Man”. By 1974, there were so many variant signs that the US Transportation Department looked at them all and came up with a single cohesive system for their use. Read more in this explanation of the history and usage of pictograms, particularly in the US National Park System. Link -via Metafilter

 
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Baffling Toilet Signs

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on July 21, 2009 at 11:09 am


New signs for a public loo in Winchcombe, England have people scratching their heads. The infographic resembles a skier with poles, or a man on an escalator. The words “ambulant urinal” convey the idea of a urinal that walks.

Barbara Heard, from Gretton Road, Winchcombe, said she failed to understand how the signs could have been sanctioned by Tewkesbury Borough Council.

She said: “Does anyone have any idea what these signs mean?

“My husband and I regard ourselves as fairly intelligent but we have no idea.

“What will our overseas visitors will make of these signs?

Chris Pike of the Tewkesbury Borough Council says “ambulant” restrooms are larger than standard, and are “intended for people who may be partially disabled but cannot access the full disabled unit.” Link -via Arbroath

 
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Signspotting: Stickman to the Rescue!

Posted by Alex in Neatorama Exclusives, Pictures, Travel on April 13, 2009 at 11:45 pm

The following is a collaboration with Signspotting, a website dedicated to weird and funny signs by Doug Lansky

Somehow we're expected to navigate the road and pick up the traffic nuances - perhaps even adjust to a steering wheel on the opposite side of the car while driving on the opposite side of the road - all before the first lane change.

All this is, of course, before you even throw a few wacked-out signs into the equation: the road-side traffic symbols that look more confusing than psych-test ink blots, mangled English, and the occasional screwball posting that almost stops us in our tracks (if we could just locate the brakes fast enough in that rental car!).

At least the stickfigures are easy to understand, often suffering miserably so that we might stay safe.

1. Way Off Piste


Location: Pilatus Mountain, Switzerland
Credit: Regina Meyer

2. Wheelchair vs. Alligator


Location: St. Lucia, South Africa
Credit: Kelly Daigle

How many unattended relatives, you suppose, rolled to their tragic fate before local officials were prompted to put up this sign?

3. Officers Can Get a Little Frisky


Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Credit: Caroline Born

4. Messiah Crossing?


Location: Glendaloch, Ireland
Credit: Karla Richards

5. World's Most Uncomfortable Ski Lift


Location: Chamonix, France
Credit: Belinda Hillard

You decide: uncomfortable chairlift or ski-in/ski-out medical clinic

6. Um, No Lap Dancing? No Red Underwear?


Location: Split, Croatia
Credit: Caitlin Thomas

May look like a “no lap dancing” sign, but this is actually asking women not to urinate here. Presumably topless urination is common in this part of Croatia.

7. Warning: Giant Spikes!


Location: Southwold, Suffolk, England
Credit: Daniel Swallow

C’mon, jump in! It’s not like there are giant spikes in the water specially placed to spear you in the nether regions.

8. It's Raining Men

Location: Mertola, Portugal
Credit: Sarah Eriksen

__________

If you like the funny signs above (and who doesn't?), head on over to Signspotting website for hundreds more. Or get the book, Signspotting: Absurd & Amusing Signs From Around The World and Signspotting 2 : The World's Most Absurd Signs , both compiled by Doug Lansky.

 
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Typographical Bird Houses

Posted by Queuebot in Animals & Pets on April 12, 2009 at 2:38 pm

It’s springtime and birds are building nests in commercial advertising signs.  Inquiring minds want to know: do birds have a favorite font?

Link – via dinosaursandrobots

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

 
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The Cemetery of No

Posted by Alex in Travel on February 23, 2009 at 8:11 pm

The Linden Hill United Methodist Cemetery, located between Bushwick, Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Queens, take themselves very seriously. They’ve got strict rules regulating … well, everything!

It seems that about the only thing you can do at the cemetery is be dead. Oh, wait – they’ve probably got a rule against that too.

Link – via jwz

 
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Safety Graphic Fun

Posted by Queuebot in Blogs & Internet on January 26, 2009 at 10:47 pm

I am so obsessed with safety graphics–those little pictographs showing, quite graphically, what will happen to you and your body part  if you get too close, operate machinery incorrectly or stand in the wrong place at the wrong time–that I had to start a blog to share them all.

Safety Graphics appear where you might expect them to: on a wood chipper or a cement truck. They also appear where you least expect them: on coffee makers and washing machines.

Look for the warning signs! Crushing, burns, serious injury, electrocution and death are right around the corner at all times. 



Link

From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by Kulia.

 
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How to Hack Construction Signs

Posted by Jill Harness in Everything Else, Gadgets, Hacks & Mods, Science & Tech on January 24, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Ever wonder how to make the construction light signs change their text? Now you can with these handy instructions:

“It will ask you for a password. Try “DOTS”, the default password.

In all likelihood, the crew will not have changed it. However if they did, never fear. Hold “Control” and “Shift” and while holding, enter “DIPY”. This will reset the sign and reset the password to “DOTS” in the process. You’re in”

Am I the only one that thinks maybe, just maybe, these things should be a little harder to change? They usually are protected with a tiny lock, and sometimes that’s not even on there. What if the sign above was trying to warn the whole road was blocked and people laughed and kept driving 65?

Link Via BB Gadgets

 
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