This traffic sign always intrigues me….the iconic visual description of the narrowing road. The intended meaning is initially confident. Touché sign designer. THEN, for me, the idea morphs into an entirely different abstraction that has a contrary meaning. Using the line segments as road edges… and then narrowing the road with an angle… and some of these signs have an added element, a dashed line to express the ending of one of the lanes. You get the picture. But the “lines”… the road edges have gotten very fat, thick as walls on a house and the dashed line really looks like 3 stacked rectangles, maybe 3 windows. The slant becomes a roofline and the single lane at top looks like a chimney. It’s a 3 level house to me. The forms are breaking down to their basic abstract shapes and the conclusion can be left to your imagination.
If you were to pick your favorite would you choose the deer crossing? Graceful. Leaping across a field of yellow. With the addition of a sticky dot changes the roadscape near the holiday’s… presto… Rudolph. Very literal in comparison to the narrowing road scenario don’t you think?
I also like the curve and the interesting roads diamond signs… they remind me of dancing men. They’re having such fun. Very much like the sculptures of Joel Shapiro. Maybe this is the safest form of day dreaming when you’re on the endless road.
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September 8, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Stephen
We’re working on print collateral for a conference taking place in Toronto this February. So I’ll be seeing more images of Toronto cross my desk in the future.
Well scary drivers… I would have to say Mexico City. No matter how short the distance between two points was they would accelerate to the highest speed possible, and screech to a stop only when absolutely necessary. Whether it be a traffic light, a wall or a feeble pedestrian. I started to find it exciting… being a passenger in a cab. But considering we saw that everyone drove this way… we didn’t even consider renting a car until we were leaving for the mountains. And we did so under the cover of dawn to avoid the craziness. I don’t remember traffic signs in Mexico City… I don’t think they had any. Great city though.
September 6, 2009 at 10:56 am
Terry
Just back from Toronto, whose streets edging downtown and traversing neighborhoods breathe in and out, with three lanes, two lanes, three lanes, two lanes, three lanes… Allows for occasional parking in shopping/dining/service areas. Learned to appreciate these signs as A warning. By the way, Canadians are the craziest drives I’ve ever experienced. As masters of the passive aggressive, they leave their passive at home when they hit the road. the reason I know the above is I gave up driving on the QEW. It frightened me too much.
My all-time favorite sign is a truck going off the edge of a wharf in Ireland. Duly warned.