Those old timer sign results in full It's hats off to you, our beloved readers, for your massive response to our challenge to create an "Elderly people" sign to replace the current couple of cripples hobbling down to the bingo - an image which doesn't much impress campaigning old timers organisation Age Concern. UK elderly persons road sign Well, it's taken us a …
...I do *get* them, but one of the winning entries just plainly looks like a skateboarder falling off, and the other one is just some false teeth. There were much better/comedic examples earlier - any of the coffin-dodging ones were funnier and made more sense.
Well done to the winners, but one has to wonder what the pay-off to the judges was...
Hmm, El Reg has gone a little PC with the winning entries. How many skate-boarding 70 year olds are there? Looks more like daft encouragement for the elderly to "get out and get active". Incidentally my Mum, who is 69, claims to be able to do a double back flip on the trampoline but I don't believe her.
If I'd been paying attention, I'd have done a sign with Richard Dawkins. He's the same age as Cliff Richard and perfectly fits a youth's favoured stereotype of an old person as being a grumpy old kodger who can't stop shouting blinkered and ill-considered fart-matter which makes as much sense as a telephone in a glass of Alphabet Soup.
THE PENGUIN: Because I like to think for myself.
Surely not! But just in case... recall that the original problem was that old people were being depicted in a stereotypical way that was, allegedly, not reflective of old people. There was sort of an implication that they were all out running around doing all kinds of things we don't associate with the elderly.... like, I dunno, skateboarding Tony Hawk style =D
The whole point of iconographic signage is that it's language neutral. In theory, even a Bosnian trucker will understand it.
But when an icon can't be reliably understood without wordage, it's a useless icon. That the winners had to be text-enhanced with "Elderly people" is de facto evidence that the iconographic version Will Not Work.
As someone approaching git-dom, I'd personally favor "Old Gits" with no icon. Two syllables is much more quickly understood than the five in "Elderly persons", "old" in particular being much, much more quickly understood than "elderly." Never mind that this increases my risk of martyrdom at the hands (wheels?) of a Bosnian truck driver who understandeth not the Mother Tongue.
I'm faintly surprised no one proposed the prototypical fossil, a trilobite, as an appropriate icon.
Brothers! Sisters!
OK, I am guessing mostly brothers but for any female geeks out there, Aloha! ...
Do not dwell on such petty things as award and reward or the subjectivity of personal taste! There is no loser in that private moment of inspiration! There is no defeat at the end of creative toil! There is no prize greater than experience!
... that aside, I reckon:
Skating Geezer-dude + Swerving Car = Perfection
But then I was never too hot at maths.
What...No image of a Jerry Can (US Pronunciation) with the words Jerry Crossing?
The skateboarder one is more appropriate for the sidewalks around here...
to warn the "Gerrys" that there is youth about.
Did'nt really like the winners myself, either.
More appropo would be a walker.
Paris cries at the thought that she is getting older.
Well, I've popped in from time to time this week to read the comments... seems all the merriment I was expecting never materialized, poo!
So I'll just say that I'm amazed my 5 minute knock-off satire of a school crossing sign rated so highly (lowly?) as to warrant headlining the article as, er, top dishonorable mention. (I just did it for a laugh with friends and family, never expected to see it again!)
BTW, for the spirit in which the contest was intended, I think the skateboarding senior sign was an excellent choice!
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