I went with the child to another child’s fifth birthday party last weekend. This was at one of these combo bouncy/bounce arcade places in a mall in Clifton Park, northwest of Albany. On one of the bouncy things, there was a handwritten sign – neatly done, I must say – that read “This is ONlY for those three years and younger.” One of my great pet peeves is the use of the lower case L in the midst of otherwise all capital letters. I see it a lot, and except as a space saver, I don’t understand it at all.
In the space designated for our group to eat, there were three signs, all manufactured, on an inside door:
NO ADMITTANCE
FIRE PANNELS
ELECTRICAL PANNELS
First off, why they designed the space so that this door was in a patron area, I don’t know. Beyond that, though, were these very professional-looking signs with the word PANELS misspelled – twice. I wish I had my camera.
In fact, I think I’ve become motivated to carry a camera so I can do an occasional piece on bad signage. That’s part of the portfolio of the NYC-based blog Your Sew Vein, from which I purloined the picture above. If you don’t see the two errors, go to the May 2, 2008 post.
So what makes you buggy about signs YOU see? I’m bothered by excessive apostrophes where none are needed and no apostrophes where one is required. I’ve actually seen Jone’s as the possessive of Jones; this so hurts my head. Also, excessive quotes – You must be “18” is an example in the Your Sew Vein blog.
What signage errors bother you?
Amy favorite websites/blogs that track these trends? Any favorite sites that make these errors?
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Not quite the same thing, but Arthur at AmeriNZ has a screen shot of a map on a TV “news” program that’s a scream.
ROG