How frustrating. Like many people (namely readers of Boing Boing) I saw the new radiation symbol released this morning by the IAEA. Like many people, I thought it was terrible. I drafted a few thoughts to blog this evening.

And then along came Andrew Crow from good old Adaptive Path, to pre-empt everything I was about to say, only with considerably more clarity and analytical thought. My underused graphic design muscles remain unflexed. Seriously though, how on earth did this get released? It’s just awful. Design by committee at its most passive and clumsy.

That said, even our trusty old UK roadsigns get it wrong sometimes. The example below is no vehicles carrying explosives, apparently. Quite why this merited a graphical depiction, I don’t know.

“Apollonia! No!”

Compare that with my favourite sign of all time. Clear, unambiguous, and actually quite funny.

“Shhiiii—-”

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