How Signs of Dysfunction Happened

I've always looked carefully at signs, store windows, hand-lettered postings, and all the other graphical expressions competing for attention. It's become a game to analyze them, deciding whether they would read better if worded differently, what alternate meanings they might have, and what underlying messages are conveyed - intentional or not. Have you ever thought that certain bank should pronounce its name "Watch Ovah Ya" rather than "Walk Ovah Ya"? That's how my mind works.

TV Days

In the 1980's I designed instructive TV graphics that had to communicate in 2 - 5 seconds using only the standard resolution of the day. Condensing a message to its essentials to fit those constraints requires skill and determination. Maybe that's why I'm such a big fan of the Mission Impossible TV series: they set themselves the incredible task of showing clearly how a caper is carried out, using no narration or explanatory circles and arrows. I doubt anyone could do that on a weekly basis anymore.

Not Another PowerPoint

In the 1990's I assembled PowerPoint presentations on a regular basis in my capacity as radio engineer for a cellular phone company. The audience abuse delivered via bullet-points is legion, but only because presenters usually prefer to take the easy way out: show the outline. For me, the outline is only the starting point. My presentations used sound, video and lots of photos to communicate the ideas in the outline.

The Interwebs

Now I design web sites for businesses, with an emphasis on usability. Usability covers all the user-friendliness aspects of a web site, including clear, unambiguous navigation labels, descriptive headlines and clearly-organized information. You can read more about that at ServiceFirstWebmasters.com

Photography Project

When I started taking photographs again in 2000, signs were a compelling subject. After taking one or two photos of blank signs, I began to see a way of looking at all the underlying ways signs communicate. Shapes, colors, general repair, height and style all tell you something about what the sign should say, regardless of how much or how little you can read of it.

Somehow photos of blank, redacted or otherwise messageless signs point out the subtext more clearly than just standing there looking at the signs themselves. I think it's because the process of reading the photo requires you to get something from the sign, so you strain for any kind of message. And there it is, in the peeling paint, faded lettering and smashed neon tubes. A photo of a dysfunctional sign makes obvious what people absorb subconsciously from seeing the sign in person.

So this book is about what all signs, functional or not, say to us aside from the intended message of the lettering.

-- Kirk Carter