Public Notices
Public notices have to get a message across to their readers quickly and clearly. Some of them do this much more effectively than others.
Here are some examples of public notices that have caught my eye. In some cases, the message is very effective, in others quite the reverse. With the effective ones, we can probably say that it is both the message and the presentation of it that is making it work. With the bizarre ones, possibly no amount of typeface manipulation would help – though maybe it would. In each case, clicking on the image brings up a bigger one.
Do Not Throw The Garabage Simply Into Beautiful Nature!!! This sign was by the café near the summit of the Fernpass in Austria, in 2005.
It’s a (literal) translation of a German version on an adjoining gate that said, ‘Bitte Werft den Müll Nicht
Enfach in Die Schöne Natur’; a better translation would have been, ‘Please don’t just throw rubbish into
the countryside’, or words to that effect. This sign tries to deal with a Europe-wide and growing problem, of people, or
certain people, chucking their litter in the street, or in this case in the beautiful nature. Whether the sign works or not, we don’t
know. Whether the three exclamation marks are better than two or one, we don’t know. |  |
Gibt Deinem Schutzengel Eine Chance All over Europe there are notices that try to induce motorcyclists to try and avoid splatting their body parts
over the carriageway. These are often quite typical of the country in which they exist, for example in Switzerland they do, or did,
simply say ‘Stay in the Saddle’. The Swiss do as they are told. This one is much sweeter though,
it was on display
in Austria in 2005 and it translates as ‘Give Your Guardian Angel a Chance’. Isn’t that nice. I love the eyes. |  |
Tidal Waves This sign exists in the Sibillini mountains in Italy. It is in four languages, each of which I speak to varying degrees,
and I cannot understand what it means in any of them. I think it means, not Beware of Tidal Waves, but Area Subject to Flash Floods. Though
that is only conjecture. |  |
Clean Up Your Doggie’s Poo This is one of those signs that tries to prevent people from allowing their dogs to shit where people will be walking. It is to be found on the
lungomare at Grottammare in the Marche region of Italy. The
translation is:
And this
Who has done it?
Picking up the dirt from your dog is an act of civic duty above all others
And . . . you avoid a fine.
There’s the wonderful angry policeman pointing to the ground (complete with graffiti, after all it is Italy). Also the strange set
of six dots between E and Ti. Altogether this doesn’t seems to be a particularly easy sign to read – punchy enough
in its intention but not in its image, in my opinion.
|  |
No Diving This a a contribution from the Health and Safety Inspector; the warning notice says, ‘No Diving’, so if anyone were to dive into a six-inch deep plastic pool full of
brightly-coloured balls, and end up with a bump on their head, the Health and Safety Inspector could say, ‘Don’t
blame me mate, I did warn you, not my responsibility’. But what if you were to try and swallow one of the balls and choke? Then you
clearly could blame Health and Safety, for they didn’t tell you not to. It should also say, ‘No ball-swallowing.’.
Health and Safety have slipped up there. |  |
