Emotionally intelligent signage

Back in the old days, when an international team of Ph.D. social scientists and veteran graphic designers first conceived the idea of emotionally intelligent signage in a series of secret all-night meetings in my garage*, the term had a particular meaning. The idea was that signs could be more effective — that is, they were […]

Our mail bag of emotionally intelligent signage this month shows the many ways businesses are deploying signs to influence people’s choices. Here are two examples that take very different approaches. In Norway, Coca-Cola used the two ways to exit a subway station to demonstrate the differences between two drinks it was promoting at local McDonald’s restaurants.

As always, the Pink, Inc., mail bag is brimming with emotionally intelligent signs sent by readers around the world.  Here are two that attempt to use signage and humor to enforce parking regulations. John Huntoon snapped this photo when he went to visit his dentist in Cardiff by the Sea, California: And several readers have

Emotionally intelligent signage! It’s everywhere — including at lunch and dinner. Stuart Ciske sends this example, which he saw at a Burger King in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Okay, maybe this time I won’t have it my way. Meanwhile, Jami Goldberg visited a Fuddruckers restaurant in Greensboro, North Carolina and spotted this — a nice touch

Comedian Louis C.K. garnered a lot of press — and made a ton of money — last month when he disintermediated the major television networks and released his latest special as a $5 download on his web site. Less well known is that the funny man (if you haven’t seen this bit, you need to)

Alastair Dryburgh of London sends this glorious example of emotionally intelligent signage, which he spotted next to the elevators (aka, the lifts) at the Tate Modern. It makes one think. And, I’m guessing, it makes more than one head for the stairwell.

Those emotionally intelligent signs keep pouring in to the Pink Blog. Below are four from the last few weeks that our elves especially liked. Clare Conroy offers a nice example from a JB Hi-Fi store in Canberra, Australia, of how to use signage to empathize with guests and change the experience of being in a

In an apparent (if perhaps momentary) triumph of emotionally intelligent signage, New York City is trying to tap hidden reservoirs of empathy among pedestrians and drivers alike by using — get this — haiku. As NBC New York explains: “Colorful 8-inch square signs featuring safety messages in haiku are being installed at high-crash locations near