Michael Bierut — he of the must-read book, 79 Short Essays on Design — emails his own examples of emotionally intelligent signage, which his Pentagram partner Paula Scher created for the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum. “Not exactly what you mean,” he writes, “but funny for parents, and — I promise you — every kid wants to use those hand dryers. Odd how 18 is just better than one!”

Actually, I think both of these signs are emotionally intelligent. The first one empathizes with parents. (I say that as the father of three kids and as a tireless and mostly ignored advocate of the “preventive pee.”) The sign also makes it dang easy to find the toilets.
015 CMP.jpg

The second one — in which Pentagram’s sign accentuates a wall installation created by SPRINGBOARD Architecture — almost certainly increases hand-washing by putting some fun in hand-drying. It demonstrates empathy by saying, “We know that washing up is a pain, so we’ll make drying off a game.” (Help! I’m channeling Dr. Suess!) The result is greater participation in the desired behavior. Brilliant both.
016 CMP.jpg
Photo credits: Paula Scher / Pentagram for the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum
Permalink

Comments are closed.