Our Thinking: A Year of Stupid Signs

Over the past year, I’ve collated my fair share of stupid signs. 

Some I’ve seen around my adopted home town of Melbourne. Others have been sent to me by friends, colleagues and connections around the world. 

Some signs have seemed pointless. Others, annoying. Many have left me and others confused – the very opposite of what good signage should do. 

What I’ve enjoyed most about collecting these example of stupid signs is everyone’s similar humourous appreciation of them. 

We all seem to intuitively understand that some signage, although often well intentioned, is poorly conceived, unnecessary or ill-timed. Sometimes, in very bad examples, it’s all three. 

As a kind of strange celebration of all things weird, wacky and whimsically bad in the world of signage, we’ve collated some of our favourite stupid signs from 2022. 

We also wanted to celebrate these instances of poor signage in an equally ridiculous and superfluous manner. 

Starting in 2023, we will hold an annual ‘Stupidest Signs Award’, celebrating (in our own way) all things stupid in signage. 

We encourage you to send us all of your examples of stupid signs. We want to see the pointless, the nonsensical to the simply baffling. There will be awards presented to the ‘winners’, and they will be equally as stupid as the signs themselves. 

This is all done in the spirit of fun. But we also have a longer term aim: to one day rid the world of stupid signs. Join us in this noble fight. 

If you aren’t following ID-LAB or me on LinkedIn, do so here (ID-LAB) and here (me) and follow my dedicated hashtag #stupidsigns for all things stupid in signage. Send your examples of stupid signs there. I can’t wait to receive them and laugh along with you.