The
SMOKING ETIQUETTE
In Japan, smoking is a very common and accepted social behavior, especially given the availability of large amounts of inexpensive tobacco. Japan has adopted sensible yet effective smoking rules to avoid street litter and conflicts with non-smokers. Smoking while walking on the street is frowned upon. Smoking is only allowed in designated smoking areas, even in open-air settings. The proper disposal of ash and cigarette butts is required. These societal norms are reinforced with a series of green and white signs showing the dangers of walking while carrying a hot ash stick in the company of children. Written in short, positive haiku statements, these signs and posters gently advocating for sensible cigarette etiquette are sponsored by Japan Tobacco, the country’s largest tobacco company.
Enforced:
Location: No / Suggestive 2000s - Onward Japan
Period:
NO DRONE ZONE
Before drones were invented, who controlled the air above our heads was of little or no consequence to the common citizen. Few could easily encroach on this space, so it remained relatively free from regulations and divisions. With the popularization of cheap commercial drones used by innocent hobbyists — not to mention those used for more nefarious purposes —new ground signs have popped up to visibly delineate the airspace above. Typically found in controlled areas, they limit the launching and landing of drones within certain premises. Drones can normally fly below 120 meters, but not within the bounds of these signs. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration defines a “No Drone Zone” as an area with temporary flight restrictions. Examples include major sporting events, presidential itineraries, and security-sensitive areas designated by federal agencies.
Enforced: Period: Location: Yes, fines and fees vary per location and event The 2022 Super Bowl carried civil penalties of over 30,000 USD and possible criminal prosecution 2010 - Onward (Since the invention of the DIY drone)
IROQUOIS THEATER
Cutaway drawing of the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago with the panicked audience trying to flee the onset of the Iroquois Theatre fire.
Investigation after the fire, viewing ruins, Chicago, Illinois, ca. January 1904.
View towards the stage from the upper balconies.
Building Type: Theater / Body Count: 602
Changes due to the fire:
[A] Limits on maximum seating capacity
[B] Improved paths of egress
[C] Exit markings along egress paths
[D] Continuously lit exit signs
[E] Emergency power for emergency lights and exit signs
[F] Improvements to exit doors including the invention of panic bars
Illuminated exit sign patent.
Door exit push bar patent.
In Europe, there are between 2 and 8 million billboards at any time, and that figure is growing.
* (Breva-Franch et al. "Sustainable Outdoor Advertising: A professional point of view from Spain")
A SIGN IS HACKED
The sliding scale of sign interference.
In the spring of 2007, drivers in Cambridge, Massachusetts saw some surprising messages on a construction sign at the intersection of Vassar and Main Streets. Students from the nearby M.I.T. campus — known for its long history of pranks and practical jokes — had hacked into the system that controls the messages scrolling across the sign’s LED panel. This benign caper would inspire hackers and pranksters far and wide to exploit this type of device, known as Variable Message Signs (VMS), Dynamic Message Signs (DMS), or Changeable Message Signs (CMS).
Even if you don’t know the technical names for them, you’ve certainly driven past countless VMS announcing road closings and construction areas. Usually consisting of an LED panel connected to a wheeled base, they inform drivers of real-time road conditions while enhancing safety and travel in designated work zones. Their popularity is easy to understand, construction companies prefer them over paying a person to stand with a static message board. Newer mobile VMS models are networked and often display real-time data on driver speed, congestion, and weather conditions.
The M.I.T. students’ 2007 VMS prank was relatively unique compared to other milestones in the brief history of modern hacking. A similar tactic is a broadcast signal intrusion, in which an official television or radio signal is temporarily commandeered. This most famously occurred in 1987 when regularly scheduled programming was interrupted by a creepy image of the Max Headroom character spouting nonsense and spanking a French maid. It may have been odd, immature, and unnerving, but it was no amateur hack; it took someone with expertise in broadcast transmissions to pull it off. That’s no surprise — since its earliest days, hacking has always combined a juvenile prankster mindset with a high level of technological fluency.
M.I.T. has a pranking tradition dating back to 1930.
On the evening of November 22, 1987, viewers of WGN TV - Chicago would have seen the first broadcast signal interference at 9:14 p.m., lasting 25 seconds. In an elaborate prank that became a legendary moment, a creepy Max Headroom mask appeared spouting nonsense and spanking a French maid.
A SIGN IS OVERSIZED
The cultural evolution of large-format eye-catchers.
Look over here!
From a distance, architecture serves as the best beacon to let people know there’s something worth looking at.
Whether it’s an entire structure built specifically to draw attention to itself, like the Eiffel Tower, or a sky sign mounted to the roof of a building, architecture and large-format signage have always been co-dependent.
Between 1925 and 1934, the Eiffel Tower featured illuminated advertisements for Citroën on three of its sides.
As buildings stretched into skyscrapers and cars got faster in the early 20th century, advertising to potential customers from a distance and at high speeds became a commercial necessity.
Look at this!
The tops of tall buildings were vast swaths of valuable unused space, perfect for displaying big, bold messages. Signs constructed from letterforms welded to scaffolding structures became iconic elements of mid-century cityscapes.
Rosslyn Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
(14) “This way up” arrow – 1947
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released its first standards manual complete with arrows for designating orientation on packaging.
(13) FHWA arrow – 1935
First published in a manual by the newly formed U.S. Federal Highway Administration, this arrow was adopted as the standard for highway signage.
(15) Northland arrow – 1950
The parking lot of the Northland Shopping Center — considered the first mall in North America — had parking signage designed by Alvin Lustig.
However, like its cousin graffiti, donor signage is also susceptible to being removed or buffed out.B What makes these public symbols so recognizable and visible is also what makes them a target and focal point for protest. Starting in 2015, institutions have been responding to public pressure by removing the names of donors whose charitable dollars were dubiously sourced. The most noteworthy example of this is the “de-Sacklering” of museums like the Louvre, the Serpentine Galleries, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.C After protestors used increasingly public acts of outcry to bring attention to the Sackler family’s primary role in creating and perpetuating the opioid crisis, institutions quietly removed any traces of their names from their buildings.
B Buffing is the removal of graffiti using chemicals and other instruments, or by painting over it with a flat color.
C "S" from the Serpentine Gallery.
Tufts University employee removes Sackler family name at the Tufts University School of Medicine building in Boston on Dec. 5, 2019.
Media coverage of toxic philanthropy starting in 2016.
In 2016, David Koch stepped down from the board of the American Museum of Natural History following protests against his multi-million-dollar funding of groups engaged in denying the reality of climate change.(Alan Yuhas "Davis Koch Steps Down from the Board of The New York Science Museum," The Guardian (italicized), January 21, 2016, https://www. theguardian.com/ us-news/2016/jan/21/ david-koch-american-museum-of-natural-history-climate-change-fossilfuel-money.)
In 2017, photographer and activist Nan Goldin formed the group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) to raise awareness around connections between the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharmaceuticals and several major art institutions. (Sean O'Hagan, "Artist Nan Goldin on Addiction and Taking on the Sackler Dynasty: 'I Wanted to Tell My Truth,'" The Guardian (italicized), December 4, 2022, https://www. theguardian.com/ artanddesign/2022/dec/04/ artist-nan-goldin-addiction-all-beauty-andbloodshed-sackler-opioid.)
In July 2019, Warren Kanders resigned from his position as Vice Chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art after months of protest over his ownership of Safariland, a company that manufactures tear-gas canisters. (Frieze News Desk," Whitney Museum Vice Chairman Warren Kanders Resigns Over Tear Gas Links, Frieze (italicized), July 25, 2019, https://www.frieze. com/article/ whitney-museum-vicechairman-warren-kandersresigns-over-tear-gaslinks.)
goods. However, despite their great potential to impact social movements, their disposability also makes them hard to catalog and difficult to contextualize within the canon of protest aesthetics. Behind this humble human sign format lies a rich and under-chronicled history dating back to the world of Victorian advertising.
Watercolor by John Orlando Parry, "A London Street Scene," 1835.
An illustration of a flyposter in action.
In early 19th-century England, the first generation of advertising billboards, known as flyposting, began to plaster the faces of any and all urban surfaces. The signs were printed on sheets of paper and wheatpasted to walls, buildings, and structures using a mop and bucket. They became so ubiquitous and obnoxious that the general public soon began to regard them as visual pollution. By 1839, London outlawed unregulated flyposting on the walls of private property.
Men and boys with advertising boards for Patent metallic pens and a masquerade at the Argyll Rooms. ca. 1825 Artist: George Scharf.
Pharmacy Symbols
Show Globe
A glass vessel with a globe-shaped base that tapers to a narrow neck was often filled with brightly colored liquids and hung in pharmacy shop windows well into the second half of the 20th century. The term "carboy" is derived from the Persian word qarabah or qarrabah, meaning “large flagon.” The carboy is thought to have originated in the Near East, where drug sellers filled large glass vessels with vibrant liquids like rosewater and wine to decorate their stalls. The show globe was used to designate pharmacies in England and the United States starting in the 17th century until falling out of favor in the 1950s.
With the rise of human-propelled vehicles like velocipedes, bicycles, and motor wagons, came vast improvements to both road surfaces and fingerpost-casting methods. The stylistic variation of these artifacts reflects the large number of local iron foundries and engineering workshops across Industrial-Age England.
By the 1920s, motorized cars had become the dominant form of transportation, necessitating an innovative approach. The newly assembled Ministry of Transportation codified U.K. driving laws and set design standards for fingerpost signage. The rules were simple: a black-on-white color scheme for legibility; a letter cap height of 6.35-7.62 centimeters; and the name of the maintenance authority printed on the post. Beyond that, it was up to the local parish and its foundries to design the signs as they saw fit.
The years between 1920-1939 saw a flourishing of fingerposts in England as each local foundry produced bespoke designs for their posts, fingers, and finials. The designs were cast in molds to ensure efficient mass production. Road travelers could easily note county border crossings by the small differences in fingerpost styles.
FINIAL
ROAD #NUMBER#
ARM / FINGER
LOCATION COLLAR
Diagram of fingerpost elements.
The original ICAO visual specifications created a signage system in red, yellow, and black that exclusively used the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s Series D font, also known as Highway Gothic.D This sans-serif typeface from 1948 is the same one found on highways across the United States. The only exception is the tarmac identification number, which requires its own typographic treatment in order to be legible from high in the air above.
D The ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth.
FHWA Series D Font or Highway Gothic.
Typical Airfield Signs
Runway Markings.
Taxiway Markings.
Holding Position.
A SIGN IS DEFINED
ADA:
Acronym for American Disabilities Act, a U.S. civil rights law passed in 1990 that prohibits discrimination based on disability and created a standard for signage compliance including Braille dots, raised characters (also called tactile characters), and/or pictograms.
ADA Sign:
Sign containing Braille and tactile elements installed on the latch side of the door to the room being identified.
Arrow:
Graphical symbol (such as ← or →) used to point or indicate direction. In its simplest form, an arrow is a triangle, chevron, or concave kite affixed to a line segment or rectangle. Complex versions more closely mimic the actual projectile weapon.
(See Manicule)
Arrow Marquee Sign:
Often found roadside near the entrances of churches and schools, this illuminated sign uses slot letters to announce coming attractions such as performances, events, and sermons.
Arrow Spinner Sign:
Also known as a “twirl” or “flip” sign, this human-held sign indicates the direction to a local business. The holder of the sign often engages in a performance with it.
Awning:
Extending outward over main building entrances or windows, this metal-frame structure is stretched with heavy canvas, providing shade and protection from the weather as well as an apt space for a sign.
Barn Advertising:
A common sight in the early-to-mid 20th century, these outdoor advertisements painted onto the exterior walls of American roadside barns have now faded into obscurity.
Barber’s Pole:
The iconic pole with stationary or rotating angled stripes in alternating colors — often red and white — has been indicating the location of barber shops since the Middle Ages.
Banner:
Usually hung outdoors on the side of a building or a light pole, this temporary sign communicates upcoming events and is often used in repetition for maximum visibility.
Billboard:
A large outdoor board used for displaying advertisements.
Blade Sign:
A sign mounted perpendicular to a wall and usually protruding slightly so as to be legible to oncoming foot traffic. (See Flag Sign)
Channel Letters:
Custom metal or plastic letters fabricated in three dimensions, commonly found in exterior signage on public and commercial buildings.
Chevron:
Also known as “arrow road signs,” this former heraldic symbol indicates a sharp turn to the left or right when painted on a road surface. On police and military uniform sleeves, it designates rank.