Subverting the Sign: The Potential of Lenticular Print Animations

Chapter

SUBVERTING THE SIGN: THE POTENTIALOF LENTICULAR PRINT ANIMATIONS

Freddie Yauner and Paul A. RodgersNorthumbria University, School of Design, UK

ABSTRACT

In a world with far-reaching developments in technologyour environment is full of increased risks that are nolonger necessarily self-evident, which we must find ways towarn against [11]. But why do we keep looking to traditionalstatic and analogue solutions, when a more effectivesolution might come from embracing subversive interactivetechnology?

This chapter explores the potential of subversion as atechnique to increase effectiveness of safety signage. Thepaper reflects and builds on the first author’s design workin this area, which took the insight that ‘safety signage isso ubiquitous it goes unnoticed’ as its starting point. Inthe chapter we look at other industries using interactionand subversion techniques to increase penetration, brandtake-up and sales, and ask whether these techniques could beapplied to signs and symbols in the workplace and publicspace to increase safety and compliance?

The chapter goes on to describe ongoing work by the firstauthor where the focus is on subverting Fire Exit signs to

create surprise through animation-based interaction toincrease user-engagement. The first author’s earlier fireexit sign, Signs of Life, a digital artwork, has beenacknowledged for its contribution to design through itsinclusion in the permanent collection of MoMA, New York. Todevelop this work towards realistic implementation in publicspaces, the author has translated the Signs of Life project touse ’Lenticular Print technology’. Lenticular prints allowmultiple images to be sliced-up and interpolated, which whenmounted behind a lenticular lens can be seen one image afterthe other as the viewer moves past the image. This allowsfor animation to be created using a single mounted image andremoves the stability and cost issues of digital technology,whilst maintaining the ability to use interaction throughanimation. This paper includes a case study that shows howlenticular print technology has been applied in hospitals toincrease infection prevention and other ongoing explorationsin the use of lenticular print safety signage systems arealso discussed.

LESSONS IN SUBVERSION FROM ART AND ARCHITECTURE

The dictionary definition of the word subversion is aderivative of the verb ’subvert’, which means:

To undermine the power and authority of (an establishedsystem or institution). For example, “The group’s activities were a directattempt to subvert democratic government autho rity.” The word has itsorigins in the Old French word subvertir or from the Latin wordsubvertere. That is, sub ‘from below’ and vertere ‘to turn.’

Subversion as a technique in the creative arts is nothingnew. Artists and designers have attempted to subvert form andmeaning in many different ways to different effect. Artistssuch as Claus Oldenburg and more recently Jake and DinosChapman who have subverted form and symbols in different ways,to radical groups like the Situationists international, whoworked to understand different emotional spaces in cities, andbreak down the ‘spectacle’ of consumerism, whilst there is astrong history of subversion of both form and function indesign through the numerous Italian Radical groups of the1960s and 1970s such as Archizoom, Gruppo Strum, Memphis andmany others. Subversion is most often used as a critique of

Subverting the Sign The Potential of Lenticular PrintAnimations

prevailing norms, a way of breaking down barriers andexpectations and drawing attention to these norms that becomeembedded as a part of everyday life. It is often associatedwith protest and anti-establishment movements, but there isplenty to learn when we dissect how and why artists anddesigners use subversive techniques.

Jeremy Deller is a British conceptual artist, who is notablefor his engagement with popular culture and exploration of thelimits of what forms art can take [6]. His most famous work isThe Battle of Orgreave (2001), a re-enactment of the actual Battleof Orgreave, a clash between the police and Yorkshire minersduring the 1984 miners’ strike in the UK. The enactment pittedbattle re-enactors playing the part of the police against theoriginal miners, and rather than intending to put the issue‘to bed’ as it were, Deller's intention was to re-ignite thedebate and conversation around the strikes of 1984 and 1985and the political maneuvering of the Thatcher government atthe time. The precision and organization of the event wereexecuted perfectly and the spectacle was recorded as a filmlater shown on terrestrial Television in the UK and exhibitedinternationally.

This work is typical of Deller, using everyday people andrecognizable and accessible forms and activities as the mediumfor his message. Ralf Rugoff, the director of the HaywardGallery in London who recently hosted a retrospective onDeller's work, picks up on similar themes in Deller’s earlywork when he states [14]:

“Working with familiar forms and objects - exhibitionposters, bumper stickers, street signs: He (Deller)typically derailed their conventional associations by addingunexpected or slightly subversive content.”

By playing with these forms that we, the general public,recognise and relate to, Deller is able to take his work outof the gallery context, and deliver his provocations inpublic. By creating work using aesthetics that were clearlyunderstood, Deller enables his work to be genuinely thought-

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Freddie Yauner and Paul A. Rodgers

provoking. Deller's work toys with expected modes of messagedelivery, working with public notice boards, party invites andstickers - all mediums that we are used to digesting assignage. Deller shows through his mischievous work, that whensigns stray from their expected format can make us sit up andpay attention.

The most literal of Deller's Public signage projects isBrian Epstein Died for You (1994). Epstein was the manager of TheBeatles, a man who Deller feels has not “been properly credited for hisrole within popular culture”, and see’s him as a martyr for pop music.Deller at his provocative best points out [6]:

“Brian Epstein Died for You is also a phrase that canpotentially offend so many different people in so manydifferent ways, and I like its blasphemous quality.”

This is clearly a step too far for signage in the workplace! Deller controls the messages he wants to portray, andthese are often radical and provocative in their nature, butit is clear that the wider application of subverting signagebeyond its expected message is a technique that could beapplied to signage in the work place so long as the messagesdelivered are appropriate.

Richard Serra is another contemporary artist, who isinterested in how his works can subvert spaces. Serra makesmonumental sculptures often in the public realm, and usuallyusing huge slabs of rolled Corten steel. Serra’s work can becontroversial as it is seen by some as alienating and over-powering. Nathan Glazer, the American sociologist, in hisarticle “Subverting the context: Public space and public design”,discusses one such project, published in the now defunct ThePublic Interest Journal [7]. Part of the article reflects onan interview that Serra gave about his ill-fated sculptureTilted Arc (1981), which was dismantled after only eight yearsfollowing much debate. The sculpture was classic in terms ofSerra’s style, it was a solid sheet of Corten steel, 120 feetlong by 12 feet high and 2.5 inches thick, it was slightlytilted as the name suggests and dissected Federal Plaza in NewYork.

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Essentially Serra wants to make people think, and challengeexisting perceptions and the status quo. He uses hissculptures to create new contexts in public spaces that havean existing context often dictated by municipal architectureand prevailing government and capitalist agendas. His work isradical and challenging, but his focus on understandingexisting contexts and finding ways to subvert them isinteresting from a signage perspective. He wants to bringpeople out of their everyday, pre-digested lives and show themnew views on the world through his work. As in the case ofthis controversial commission in New York, in front of a majorpublic building, Serra [7] explains that he “found a way todislocate or alter the decorative function of the plaza and actively bring people intothe sculpture's context.” He goes on to say:

“I am interested in work where the artist is the maker of'anti-environment’, which takes its own place or makes itsown situation, or divides or declares its own area ... I amnot interested in work which ... satisfies urban designprinciples. I have always found that to be ... a need toreinforce a status quo of existing aesthetics”.

Again the suggestion is not to make people uncomfortablethrough signage, but to try and learn from this study ofexisting contexts and potential for breaking those down totake users of buildings into a new ‘space’. Serra’s work helpsus see that if we keep using existing norms and aestheticsthen we will reinforce the status quo. Of course this is theintention of standardization of signage and pictograms, toallow us to reinforce key and potentially life savingmessages, but as we will go on to suggest later, what ifsignage is so ubiquitous it is no longer ‘seen’? Perhaps thenSerra’s ambition to create an ‘anti-environment’ which candeclare it’s own area, or in the case of signage its ownmessages, could be a productive subversion to perhaps increasethe impact of signage.

In their seminal book Learning from Las Vegas, the architectsRobert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, engaged in various

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discussions on the relevance of signage in Las Vegas. The 1972book was at the time seen as a subversive manifesto [8],documenting Las Vegas, the most unlikely subject at a timewhen modernism was the prevailing architectural style.

In a chapter titled "Symbol in Space before Form in Space:Las Vegas as a Communication System", Venturi and Scott Browndiscuss the new phenomenon where “the message is basely commercial”.Huge signs dominated the landscape of the Las Vegas strip,intended to be seen at high speeds and from a distance, onemotel is discussed where the signage can be seen long beforethe motel itself. In this case study the sign and its designto attract attention within the complex setting of the LasVegas strip whilst travelling at high speed has become moreimportant than the architecture. Venturi and Scott Brown,reminisce that a driver 30 years earlier would have found iteasy to navigate simple roads and signage, however in the1970’s they state [16]:

“... the driver has no time to ponder paradoxical subtletieswithin a dangerous, sinuous maze. He or She relies on signsfor guidance - enormous signs in vast spaces at highspeeds.”

Forty years later we live in an increasingly complex world,where the subtleties and invasiveness of commercial signagehas reached new levels. The overtly commercial and hyper realworld that was Las Vegas in the 1970s has slowly descendedinto our everyday lives, so what does that mean for signagenow? These more adventurous and imposing signage techniquesthat have grown and mutated from the enormous Las Vegasexamples are still only being used for ‘basely commercial’purposes. Why is it that the safety signage industry has onlyexplored in a very limited way, the many different interactivetechniques used to such effect in advertising andcommunications? After all Venturi and Scott Brown warn us[16]:

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“... complex programs and settings require complexcombinations of media … they suggest an architecture of boldcommunication rather than one of subtle expression”.

In their following chapter Venturi and Scott Brown go on tosay [16]:

"... the sign is more important than the architecture, andit's reflected in the budget. The sign at the front is anextravaganza, the building at the back a modest necessity.The architecture is what is cheap."

A ‘modest necessity’ rings true of current perceptions ofsafety signage - yet to Venturi and Scott Brown, thesebuildings can be just that as they do not need to capturepeoples’ attentions. People are moving too fast to see thebuilding, all they need to see is the giant sign outside, andthen they can easily not notice the building. The commercialsignage has captured their attention and they are nowfollowing its direction to enter the building. Yet considerfor one moment the current situation, where the commercialsignage industry (e.g. advertising) have developed theirtechniques to be ever more convincing and attention grabbingand budgets apportioned to advertising are continuing to grow.In light of this phenomenon, should we still see the safetysignage industry as ‘modest necessity’ - the equivalent to ahighway supermarket building that is cheap and doesn’t need tobe seen? Safety signage is unlikely to be noticed in today’sworld where commercial signs are all pervasive not justthrough physical infrastructure but through the digitaldevices we carry with us everywhere. We suggest it is now timeto act on these observations from 40 years ago, and worktowards making the safety sign as important and as much of anappropriate ‘extravaganza’ as commercial signage. There is noneed though to re-invent the wheel, when there are decades ofadvertising communication techniques that can be re-appropriated.

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SUBVERSION AS A VALUABLE ASSET:BUSINESS AND INTERACTION DESIGN AND ADVERTISING

The approach of the first author, in his lenticular fireexit signage work, Please do not Run, that will be discussed indetail later, is deliberately challenging. The range of signscreated covers both realistic opportunities for new signs andsome signs that are consciously beyond what would bebeneficial directly to fire exits, but that explore thepotential of the medium, for both other types of existingsignage and possibilities that might not currently exist. Ingrowing academic fields like Interaction Design, this approachis reflected with an increasing number of academicpractitioners using their research to probe and suggestpossibilities to both the near and future potential of themediums they are studying.

For example, work that attempts to subvert expected norms soas to stimulate new interpretations, perceptions or behaviorsis now proving to be very valuable to the wider InteractionDesign community. In the editorial for a special edition ofDesign Studies that focused on creative practice inInteraction design, Candy and Costello [3] report on the valueof this sort of work as the field expands. They suggest:

“Artistic interaction design can be consciously non user-friendly, working to subvert expected norms so as tostimulate new interpretations, perceptions or behaviors ….The questions asked by these researchers are, therefore,often very different to those asked by interaction designersfocused on usability in the work environment. Theirdifferent perspective is now proving to be very valuable assoftware systems increasingly expand out of the workplaceand into all facets of everyday life.”

This balance between speculative aspiration and reality isalso seen as a valuable model for business development.Disruptive innovation [5] has become a buzzword for bigindustry looking to break into new markets, but subversive

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strategies can also be applied to more established and‘traditional’ market places. Metais [12] proposes:

“… to drive growth and innovation in an apparently maturemarket, firms need to subvert the rules of the game.”

Metais sets three key characteristics subversive strategy:

it must be a dream; it must be excessive;

and

it must be deviant.

In the case study that he outlines, that of SEB Group, whoare leading manufacturers of household goods, he emphasizesthat the strategy was first built around an acknowledgement ofthe company’s core competencies. If we were to attempt tounderstand how some of this thinking could be applied to thesignage industry as a whole rather than a specific company,then perhaps we could consider core competencies as minimumrequirements of Health and Safety signs. By which we mean forinstance with a fire exit sign, there are numerouspermutations of running pictogram, arrow, door, and text thatare appropriate and perhaps the only definitive aspect is thewhite graphic on green background (at least in Europe!). So inthis case the one core rule is that the colours can’t change,but we can add to this and say if there is an arrow it cannotmove, as this would start to send incorrect messages. Nowaround these core rules we can start to dream and visualize,we can be excessive trying things that we don’t know wherethey will end up, as a result we will inevitably come up withdeviant ideas and solutions.

Metais [12] goes on to talk about how the introduction of adeviant strategy can lead to ‘stretch’. Again if we were toapply his thoughts to the whole industry rather than an

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individual company, we believe it could be more fruitful.Essentially what Metais outlines is that the adoption of astrategic strategy, leads to stretch, which:

“… creates an individual and collective feeling ofincompetence which is a potential source of creativity inthe acquisition and deployment of resources, provided thatthe process is managed so that being stretched makes onelook for a solution that relieves the stretch effect.”

If the ideas outlined in this chapter around the potentialof lenticular images are seen as just one outcome as a resultof ‘stretch’ imagine what a wealth of other subversivetechniques could be successfully applied to the safety signagemarket.

Of all the sectors that the signage industry can learn from,the marketing and advertising industry is the closest. In factit is the growth of these industries that led to thedevelopment of Yauner’s Signs of Life, and Please do not Runinteractive signage projects. These projects came out of thefirst author’s awareness that commercial signs that weretrying to sell the viewer something, where investing hugeenergies in innovative ways to capture peoples’ attention andpersuade them to follow instructions or listen to keymessages. His interactive signage hopes to question why themost essential signs, both to public health and in terms ofregulations stipulating their display, have never appeared toadopt any of these successful marketing techniques.

The exciting aspect of alternative marketing and advertisingapproaches compared to early stage speculative designs, likethe first author’s work, is that the work not only has clearpurpose, but it’s effectiveness is clearly measured. Charles[4] writes clearly on the benefits of subversive advertisingand has the Figures to back up claims of game changingcampaigns. Like the previous example of subversive businessstrategies, subversive advertising is most useful for lowinterest saturated markets. Charles outlines how times havechanged, that previously a large enough budget would winbrands the consumers they desired. But in the increasingly

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complex world, and “fragmented modern media landscape”, whereconsumers now control what and when they receive advertisingmessages, this approach no longer promises the results of old.

Charles proposes that subversion with purpose, bycommissioning mould-breaking advertising, can lead to bothincreased engagement and clarity of message. She says:

“Some marketers have risen to the challenge bycommissioning mould breaking advertising in categories thatare perceived as so low interest they are better known forplaying to generic themes than creativity.”

One such campaign was Unilever’s ‘Dirt is Good’ which hasincreased visibility in every market it has been launched intoand in Latin America translated into an 6% increase in marketshare. Charles reminds users that this approach cannot beapplied in isolation, but must be part of a bigger plan andfollowed through to see full benefits.

It is not simply a case that the signage industry can learnfrom the approaches applied in marketing, but it must alsorecognize that as the marketing industry becomes moresophisticated it is a bigger competitor and distracter ofpeople’s attention. Why should we assume that users ofbuildings still notice signage that for many good reasons hasremained the same, when everything around them is changing andcompeting for their attentions. As the ideas and creativesubversive approaches in advertising are refined so is theirtotal investment in new forms of digital signage to carrythese messages. ABI Research report [1] showed that in 2009the US digital signage market would grow by one-third thatyear. It should not be forgotten that this growth happeneddespite the uncertain financial conditions of the period.

According to an industry analyst quoted in the report, thereasons for increased investments in new digital mediums aretied to issues that could easily apply to the wider signageindustry:

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“… traditional advertising media are losing their appeal formany consumers… Consequently, digital signage has emerged asa way to deliver highly customized and targeted messaging ina variety of locations. And in a fast-changing world,digital signs’ ability to be updated in real time is a realbenefit.”

The loss of appeal is not so surprising. However the mostexciting opportunity surely lies in the ability to updatesigns in real time. Yauner’s Signs of Life (Figure 1) deliberatelyopens up conversations for how a digital exit sign could act.

Currently focussing on an artistic approach that proposesthat when the pictogram is not needed to direct people, whichis established using a motion sensor to scan the area that thesign serves, the pictogram can go about his own business,pulling out a chair and watching television. The user of thebuilding catches the pictogram ‘in his own world’ and in doingso triggers the motion sensor and the pictogram runs back tohis appropriate position. By drawing the viewer into aninteraction with the sign, and triggering their own creativethought about what the ‘man’ might get up to when no one islooking, is intended to increase the effectiveness of thesign. If one interactive sign is installed, for instance in anentrance lobby, it could lead to building users paying moreattention to the static signs around the building as theyproject personalities onto each pictogram they see. Imaginethat this sign is part of a connected network that could beupdated remotely, with relevant seasonal and daily updates.Now an interactive safety sign could become an asset to thebuilding, by entertaining the building users and drawing theirattention in a subversive way, a hybrid of public art andpublic signage, that serves to reinforce the ‘traditional’safety messages installed around the building.

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Figure 1. Signs of Life by Freddie Yauner 2009.

FAMILIARITY AND CLUSTER BLINDNESS: SIGNAGE INDUSTRY

Within the signage industry there appears to be regularreference to an awareness of ‘Safety signage blindness’, butthere does not seem to be any formal record of such aphenomenon. Through industry blogs across a range of sectorsthat use safety signage or supply signage there arediscussions around reasons that users of buildings don’tnotice the signage that is giving them vital safety signage.This ‘safety signage blindness’ is seen in two categories thatof ‘cluster blindness’ and ‘familiarity blindness’.

Cluster blindness refers to signs being ignored due to therebeing too many signs in one location. David Arnold of the UKsignage firm Viking Signs, who wrote one such blog post on‘safety signage blindness’ remarks [2]:

“Indeed on carrying out a site survey a few years ago,rather than providing many new signs, much of the visitinvolved looking at ways of consolidating down existing signmessages into a more concise format.”

Another industry blog run by Stock Signs, goes on to say[5]:

“Having your safety information in one place will notonly look smarter but will help reduce sign blindness -where people are so used to seeing the same signs day in dayout they in fact cease to register seeing the signs at all.”

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‘Familiarity blindness’ on the other hand occurs when peopleare so used to a certain sign and have seen it so many timesthat they start to ignore it. Arnold [2] urges health andsafety practitioners to:

“… remember that signs will lose impact over time.Refreshing the message can only improve comprehension of themessage.”

Both of these forms of safety sign blindness could beovercome by the use of lenticular technology and other formsof subverted signage. Lenticular signs are able to carry morethan one message, and ‘flip’ between messages as people movepast, presenting a potential solution to cluster blindness,which will be discussed further when addressing potential usesof lenticular signage. Whilst the awareness of FamiliarityBlindness within the community of health and safety communityvalidates Yauner’s initial approach, as it was his personalinsight into over familiarity with safety signs that led tohis work on subverting signage. By drawing viewers intopersonal narratives around the pictograms on the signage, andengaging the viewers’ own creative imagination in other wayssubverted lenticular signs allow the user to engage with signson a cultural level, and hence shows the potential to overcomefamiliarity blindness of safety signage.

POTENTIAL OF LENTICULAR CASE STUDY:UCLH SOCIAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

The first case study of lenticular print usage for safetysigns comes from University College London Hospital (UCLH)[10]. Lenticular posters were used as part of a social mediacampaign across multiple platforms, to improve infectioncontrol awareness and compliance. The campaign aimed todeliver hard-hitting messages and images to raise awareness ofinfection control and grab the attention of both patients andstaff. The lenticular posters were used around the wards and

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above patient beds, focusing on the spread of germs and howthis can be avoided with hand hygiene.

The campaign was lead by Annette Jeanes, Director ofinfection prevention and control, UCLH NHS Foundation Trust,working with an external creative team. Jeanes was aware ofthe need for a novel and innovative medium that would catchpeople’s attention, something that was not easy to forget. Asthe Chairman of UCLH NHS Foundation Trust says in theevaluation film about the campaign “It’s different andtherefore it will get peoples’ attention” [9]. Often differentdoesn’t always mean better, a creative approach in highlyregulated spaces like hospitals can be seen as frivolous, butthe chairman is quite clear that he “hopes it will make ustake infection control even more seriously”.

External experts from the NHS infection control centreundertook the evaluation of the project. This evaluationshowed that the UCLH infection control campaign was rated asvery good by 91% of people interviewed. Also when askeddirectly about the Lenticular aspect of the campaign, over 90%thought the holographic images were effective.

Anecdotal evidence from members of staff at UCLH included“They catch the eye as people walk past” and “they catchpeople’s imagination, so it does draw people’s attention toit, so it does raise awareness” [9]. Here we see some of thebest attributes of lenticular signage celebrated as effectivemeans of communicating vital messages. The first, dwelling onthe fact that by changing image as people move past, they canactively catch people’s attention. Whilst the second quotemakes clear that by activating viewers own creativity andimagination you increase the attention that people will give asign and therefore the level awareness that the messageswithin it can raise.

SIGNS OF LIFE AND PLEASE DO NOT RUN:A SUBVERSIVE SIGNAGE CASE STUDY

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The ongoing work by the first author is focused onsubverting ‘Fire Exit” signs to create surprise throughanimation-based interaction to increase user-engagement. Thefirst author’s earlier fire exit sign, Signs of Life, a digitalartwork, has been acknowledged for its contribution to designthrough its inclusion in the permanent collection of TheMuseum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. As Pamela Popeson fromthe department of Architecture and Design at MoMA says “Modernpictograms are so common they go unnoticed; Signs of Life brings them back intofocus.” [13]

Signs of Life is an interactive Fire Exit sign, created as acritical exploration of design commentaries in public space,resulting from five years’ exploration and prototyping. Thesignage allows the viewer to look into the life of anoverworked pictogram by introducing animation controlled by amotion sensor to the most frequent and recognisable sign inpublic space. Signs of Life was originally created for anexhibition in a hotel lobby, where there were numerous exitsigns over every doorway. The work aimed to explore thepotential of bringing animation to safety signage, bysubverting the content to draw more attention to them, whilstusing the opportunity offered through animation to openconversations around our culture of overwork and increasinglyother social issues through new editions.

The creative research process started with a narrativedevelopment process taking inspiration from fictional andfactual literature, such as Virginia Woolf’s A Room of Ones Own:

“… if things had been a little different from what theywere, one would not have seen, presumably, a cat without atail. The sight of that truncated animal padding softlyacross the quadrangle changed by some fluke of thesubconscious intelligence the emotional light for me.” [17]

Yauner then wrote a short story of his own and a film wasmade to establish the fire exit man as the hardest-working manin a public building. Impossible Film shows people trying andfailing to stand static ‘mid-run’ in the position of the fireexit man.

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Motion activated interactive techniques that are used incommercial signage (advertising) were adapted to prototypesafety signage. The sign functions normally when people arepresent, but when no one is near, the ‘exit man’ would goabout his mundane daily life, if interrupted the ‘exit man’would run back to his static ‘running’ position. It was this‘running’ position along with the desire to develop ananalogue interactive sign that led to the development of thelenticular signage series Please do not Run. It seemed to Yaunerthat for all the research and standards that have been appliedto exit signage, the basic pictogram undermined the health andsafety it was there to promote. The clearest instructions thata fire safety officer issues during a fire drill or actualfire, is “Please do not run” - yet the standardized pictogramfor exit signs that signal the appropriate exit route during afire, show a man sprinting out of the door, a clear invitationfor Yauner to further subvert the exit sign.

Please do not Run was developed as a series of lenticularprints, which allows analogue interaction as the viewer walkspast the sign. Subverted lenticular signs, a non-digitalinteractive technique show huge potential of realizingYauner’s design approach beyond the gallery and into publicspace. The Please do not Run series presents both realistic andfantastical opportunities to raise the profile of thepictogram. Ranging from signs that show the secret adventuresof the ‘fire exit man’ through to concepts that Yaunerbelieves could realistically improve safety in publicbuildings. The signs were commissioned for the exhibitionCurious Minds: New Approaches to Design, at the Israel Museum,Jerusalem. One of the more fantastical signs flipped from anormal exit sign, to a view through the wall of the museum,where the ‘exit man’ was strolling in the sculpture garden(Figure 2).

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Figure 2. Please do not run: View, Freddie Yauner 2011.

Whilst another in the series showed a female pictogram, whohad arrived to steal a kiss, begging the question, who wassignalling the entrance to the ladies loo? (Figure 3)

Figure 3. Please do not run: Kiss, Freddie Yauner 2011.

A third sign in the series, anticipates the inevitable. Ifthe signage industry does start to adopt interactivesubversive techniques, how long will it be until marketingdepartments see safety signage as just one more opportunity tocommunicate their message? (Figure 4)

Yauner also used the signs to explore new ways to makepictograms inclusive. The Inclusive exit (Figure 5) flips between anable bodied pictogram, mid run heading through the door and awheel chair user, mid push also heading through the door. Thesubtlety of this sign is important, on first view it makes aclear comment that we should consider everyone in our signageincluding those with disabilities, but it is in the way thewheel chair user is depicted that Yauner develops hiscommentary. Disabled pictograms are always shown as completelystatic, however in Yauner’s sign not only is the wheel chair

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user mid-push, but ‘he’ is actually heading through the door -reinforcing the contemporary view that people withdisabilities are autonomous and should be seen as equals.

Figure 4. Please do not run: Advertise, Freddie Yauner 2011.

Figure 5. Please do not run: Inclusive, Freddie Yauner 2011.

Yauner also created a sign for the exhibition that aimed tosubvert the context of the exhibition space, whilst exploringone of the elements of lenticular signage that has the mostpotential. All of the existing exit signs in the IsraelMuseum, were written in Hebrew, and yet Israel has twoofficial languages, Hebrew and Arabic, but unless you can readHebrew you could not read the vital fire exit signs. Yaunersimply created a sign that flipped between the two languages.

As we can see from the Hebrew - Arabic translation sign(Figure 6), lenticular presents the opportunity to createtranslations for many different signs and contexts. Incountries like Canada, America and Wales where secondlanguages in certain areas are common, and often translationsare necessary by law, lenticular prints could deliver multipletranslations within one sign. With this approach it would also

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be possible to find solutions to ‘cluster blindness’ bycombining multiple messages into a single sign, such as thoseyou might see at an entrance to a factory or building site.Also in these contexts, where migrant workers are oftenoperating, it might be useful to consider further use oftranslation for key safety signs. By using multiple frames,lenticular prints also present the opportunity to signalcomplex messages that may not be possible in single pictogramsor an increase in the perceived danger. Yauner has hinted athow this might be possible in his ‘Fire Fire’ (Figure 7)edition, as with many of the more extreme subversions it isnot a suggestion that this should be used as it stands, butthat the principles demonstrated can be used and refined tocreate more effective signage.

Figure 6. Please do not run: Translate, Freddie Yauner 2011.

Figure 7. Please do not run: Fire Fire, Installation view, Freddie Yauner 2011.

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CONCLUSION

In conclusion we propose that lenticular signage is one ofmany potential subverted signage techniques that could deliveran increased engagement and recollection of signage. Givingdirectional and safety signage an equal footing to compete forattention with the multitude of signage and increasinglycomplex messaging systems that surround our everyday lives.The use of well thought out creative interventions that don’tundermine the key messages of the sign, such as the ‘kiss’edition in Yauners Please do not Run, but engage the public’s owncreative imagination, can lead to a greater engagement andtherefore a greater awareness of the signs and the fire routesthey signpost.

REFERENCES

[1] ABI Research, US Digital Signage Market to Grow by One Third in 2009.2009 March 9. Available from:http://www.abiresearch.com/press/1385-US+Digital+ Signage+Market +to+ Grow+by+One+Third+in+2009.

[2] Arnold, D., Overcoming Safety Signs Blindness. 2011 April18. Available from:http://www.safetysignsupplies.co.uk/blog/overcoming-safety-signs-blindness~130.html.

[3] Candy, L., Costello, B., Editorial - Interaction design and creativepractice, Design Studies, Elsevier, Amsterdam, Vol 29, No. 6,2008.

[4] Charles, G., Subversion with purpose: Marketers aiming for attention-grabbing ads need a clear sense of reason too, Marketing, Haymarket BusinessPublications, UK, 9 December 2009, pp. 15.

[5] Christensen, C., Overdorf, M., Meeting the challenge of disruptivechange, Harvard Business Review, 78(2), pp 66-76. 2000.

[6] Deller, J., Joy of People, Hayward Gallery Publishing, London,2012.

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[7] Glazer, N., ‘Subverting the Context': Public Space and Public Design,Public Interest, 1992, Issue 109, pp 3-20.

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Subverting the Sign: The Potential of Lenticular Print Animations

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