Make the ISO Exit sign the new American standard as buildings are renovated or newly built
Make the ISO Exit sign the new American standard as buildings are renovated or newly built
The Issue
SAYING GOODBYE TO THE RED EXIT SIGN & WHAT 9/11 HAS TO DO WITH IT
It's a pictogram, and it's green. The sign's wordlessness means it can be understood even by people who don't speak the local language. And the green color, they argue, just makes sense. Green is the color of safety, meaning go the world over. Conversely, red most often means danger, alert, halt, or please don't touch. Why confuse panicked evacuees with a sign that means right this way in a color that means stop? International designers tend to think our system is illogical and consider our rejection of the running man to be as dumb as our refusal to adopt that other sensible international norm, the metric system.
People in the rest of the world—at least, the kind of people who spend time considering how to mark a means of emergency egress—think our simple red sign is completely nuts. Many other countries use some version of the ISO standard, a symbol developed in the late 1970s by a Japanese designer named Yukio Ota and adopted for international use in 1985.
Agree or disagree with these statements, they stand at the center of the great emergency exit sign debate that has been brewing for 40+ years now. Throughout the world, exit signs follow ISO standards and use the green pictogram of a figure running and an arrow in the direction of the exit. These signs may also have words in the local language indicating an exit. For these reasons, many countries now use some version of this ISO standard created by Ota.
The running man exit sign is a safety sign that is used to indicate the direction of the nearest exit in case of an emergency. It is called the running man because it depicts a person running towards an exit. The sign is green because it is associated with safety and “go,” which instructs the public to remain calm and follow the running man exit sign.
It is superior to regular EXIT signs because it can be configured to your emergency exit location. The sign can be purchased depicting a Running Man going left (←), right (→) or here (↓). The running man exit sign can also be lit, and have the added benefit of a larger arrow that can point to the nearest exit.
1,069
The Issue
SAYING GOODBYE TO THE RED EXIT SIGN & WHAT 9/11 HAS TO DO WITH IT
It's a pictogram, and it's green. The sign's wordlessness means it can be understood even by people who don't speak the local language. And the green color, they argue, just makes sense. Green is the color of safety, meaning go the world over. Conversely, red most often means danger, alert, halt, or please don't touch. Why confuse panicked evacuees with a sign that means right this way in a color that means stop? International designers tend to think our system is illogical and consider our rejection of the running man to be as dumb as our refusal to adopt that other sensible international norm, the metric system.
People in the rest of the world—at least, the kind of people who spend time considering how to mark a means of emergency egress—think our simple red sign is completely nuts. Many other countries use some version of the ISO standard, a symbol developed in the late 1970s by a Japanese designer named Yukio Ota and adopted for international use in 1985.
Agree or disagree with these statements, they stand at the center of the great emergency exit sign debate that has been brewing for 40+ years now. Throughout the world, exit signs follow ISO standards and use the green pictogram of a figure running and an arrow in the direction of the exit. These signs may also have words in the local language indicating an exit. For these reasons, many countries now use some version of this ISO standard created by Ota.
The running man exit sign is a safety sign that is used to indicate the direction of the nearest exit in case of an emergency. It is called the running man because it depicts a person running towards an exit. The sign is green because it is associated with safety and “go,” which instructs the public to remain calm and follow the running man exit sign.
It is superior to regular EXIT signs because it can be configured to your emergency exit location. The sign can be purchased depicting a Running Man going left (←), right (→) or here (↓). The running man exit sign can also be lit, and have the added benefit of a larger arrow that can point to the nearest exit.
1,069
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on February 8, 2023