Warning

by Nicole Recchia

Warning labels have become ubiquitous. From take-out coffee cups to heavy machinery, they constantly caution in wordless pictures against potential injury or death. Unnoticed, often unheeded, the design of warning lables contains a special graphic language. Their visual simplicity is often uneasily juxtaposed with a desire to achieve clarity of message, making their meaning clear but frequently awkward and often comical. The human figures in warning lables have perfectly round heads, rarely with a neck, and almost always a stick body. Movement is shown through ellipses used to indicate crushing or flinging of the head and body. Fire is portrayed as a cloud of red, exploding out in all directions, and filling the lungs of the victim. Crushing is often displayed by distorting the stick figure's shape to mimic the crushing object. Frequently the human figures throw hands in the air in a dramatic, silent "Oh no!" "Oh no!" indeed, Warning is a collection of some 160 maCabre warning lables from around the world, depicting the worst hazards imaginable. Be entertained, be amused, but most of all be forewared!

128 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2005

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

WARNING! This book will make you laugh and think at the same time! It is amazing to me how many signs there are in the public; some of them are helpful, but others seem to tell us things that we really should not have to be told. This book looks at this phenomena in a way that is sardonically insightful.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Believe it or not, I found this in a traveling library while on a road trip. Unexpected addition to my own.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love industrial art, and especially warning stickers. This is a fantastic and comprehensive collection of those images. However, the books is essentially a captionless slideshow divided into a few named categories. There is no real information about the origins of the images or what country they are from, etc. For this, my rating dropped.

It's a fun book to page through, and even has a few particularly inventive pieces.

[Jennifer MacDonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now I know that if I ride my wheelchair down a slope there may be an alligator waiting at the bottom.