Does your venue ever host events with ‘out of towners’? I mean people from waaaay out of town – like another country. We live in a multicultural society, and we must be tolerant and of other’s inability to clearly understand our language (both written and spoken), and we must be willing to make the extra effort to initiate communications. We can’t reasonably expect everyone to understand our signage, lingo, or gestures either. One person’s phrase or euphemism can be pure gibberish to another if they are not familiar with the language and the context of the conversation.

Communications with theatre folk from around the globe can be both exasperating and rewarding, so take a look at the Theatre Words project at the OISTAT web site (http://www.oistat.org/content.asp?path=dw7ufqvk).

Signage and markings, particularly when they are safety related, must be clear, concise, and generally understandable regardless of the native language of the reader. The International Standards Organization (ISO), as well as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have published a listing of standard pictographs (icons) to address these needs. The standards describe the general layout of signs, the fonts to be used, the colors to be used, and the symbols to be used. ISO Standard 7001:2007 actually requires safety signs to have a greater emphasis on the symbol than on the actual words.

According to ISO, symbols fall into two basic categories:

Graphical Symbols — Visually perceptible figures with a particular meaning used to transmit information independently of language. These are usually for Required PPE or danger and warning signs.

Public Information Symbols — Graphical symbols intended to give information to the general public, the understanding of which is independent of specialist or occupational training. These would be EXIT signs, Muster Point signs, AED and Fire Fighting equipment locations.

ANSI and OSHA have also addressed the issue of sign legibility and declared that safety signs must be typed (machine printed) – YOU CANNOT USE HANDWRITTEN SAFETY SIGNS – ANSI Standards Z535.2-2007 and Z535.4-2007, which covers the criteria for safety signage, specifically state that only typed, sans-serif lettering can be used such as Arial, Folio, Franklin Gothic, Helvetica, Meta, News Gothic, Poster Gothic, and Universe.

This sign would not be legal under OSHA regulations.

This is done for a variety of good reasons, the most significant being that there are numerous letters that are ‘look-alikes’:

• The Capital letter ‘G’ and the digit ‘6’
• The Capital Letter ‘I’ (i), lower case letter ‘l’ (L), the digit ‘1’ (one), a forward slash ‘/’, a backslash ‘\’, and a pipe ‘|’ can all look the same.
• The Capital Letter ‘C’, lower case letter ‘c’, and a parenthesis ‘(‘ are very similar.
• The Capital Letter ‘O’, the lower case letter ‘o’, and the digit ‘0’ (zero) are easily confused.
• The letters ‘g’ and ‘q’
• The letters ‘V’ and ‘U’ and ‘v’ and ‘u’
• The plus symbol ‘+’ and the letter ‘t’.

Artsy fonts, rainbow color selections, and other flourishes may be OK, or even desirable for show posters, party announcements, and motivational signage, but blocky, boring, and bold are the format for critical signage.

Misspellings can lead to misunderstandings, too.

I recently saw a hand scrawled sign on a gas pump that read: “Checks will no longer be excepted.” Which, ironically, means just the opposite from what was intended.

By using a word processor with a spell-checker to proof your sign wording you can reduce the likelihood of misspelling – and you can then print the sign legibly. Don't be afraid to get some peer review of signs before you print them.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Another reason to forbid hand-written safety signs is because they generally do not contain the required safety symbols, and if they do, it is highly unlikely that they meet the ISO graphics standards (unless you are a really good artist). Often, symbols are more important than words on a sign – (not to mention the fine for not using them).