Several complained and asked why the stick figures were black? Designers drew up new signs replacing the old ones.
If you’ve parked your car near the Golden Gate bridge any time between February and earlier last week you’ve probably seen anti-burglary signs warning you to stow away your valuables out of sight. According to the SF Examiner earlier today (Apr. 24,2019) everyone was fine with the signs for the first two months they were up until complaints flooded the Golden Gate Bridge authority earlier in April that the stick figure in a prison outfit and mask was purposely a “person of color.”
Here are what the new signs look like thanks to former KRON 4 reporter Stanley Roberts.
Meanwhile in #SanFrancisco…
New anti auto burglary signs at @GGBridge had to have a makeover, because the original signs had black #stickfigures and people complained they were singling out “Blacks” so now the stick figures are orange. ???#YouCantMakeThisStuffUp pic.twitter.com/RalJF7zHnN
— Stanley Roberts (@StanleyRoberts) April 23, 2019
…and here are what the old signs looked like.
Golden Gate Bridge officials change anti-theft signs after objections surface – https://t.co/acppVagAXm
— Paulo nonVTEC Acoba (@ferio_252) April 25, 2019
White backgrounds and black stick figures, as far as I know, are the default color combination for simple and straightforward signs where you want to get the point across as quickly and efficiently as possible. These new signs, although they do get the point across, are just that much more confusing to someone like me who never really saw an issue with first signs to begin with.
If you think about it, most street signs with people giving you some sort of direction, use black stick figures with nothing to read between the lines about its color choice.
Here are several street signs from Crimea warning drivers that road work is ahead. I can easily imagine a scenario, if these signs were in the Bay Area, people taking issue depicting the working class and those more likely to be pedestrians in a certain color.
In my opinion, this complaint was a bit of a stretch, was honestly a waste of everyone’s time, and totally unnecessary.
If anything hopefully this story gets around about the new orange stick figures if only to draw more attention to the sign and the important message it has to offer you. Hide your belongings lest they get stolen!
What do you think about this bit of sign drama? Let me know your .02 in the comments below.
Source: SF Examiner
