Signs

Intro - Open Door With Care

It all started with Occupational Health and Safety signs that warned us to "Open Door with Care". I can't put the original up, it's copyrighted, but the rest of these are original work.

Things very quickly spiralled out of control... (scroll down for close-ups of the individual signs)

The Signs

For most the following selection, I can take no credit. Thanks to the original authors:

Tony Moriarty I believe started the trend:

Shaun O'Keefe Followed soon after:

Kieran Spear:

Meet Sticky

However, after this festival of creativity stalled for a week or two, I decided that it was time to step up the game! He's made of wrapping paper, sticky tape, and win.

"Sticky" himself quickly joined the fun

And became part of the family:

He had many more adventures than I took photos of. For a while he had fancy hair courtesy of The Birth Of Venus, an assortment of potato-head-style ears and other facial features, and he gained and lost a couple of other accessories over the course of a month or two.

Drama!

The actual backstory is that a building leak sprayed him with some decidedly unpleasant fluids from the bathroom of the level above, but that's boring and I'll never mention it again.

What really happened is that he got fed up! Life's tough when you're monochromatic and two-dimensional. It took lots of planning, but one day...

...He escaped!

[to insert here if I can ever get a copy: David McLeish prepared a video showing him walking down the corridor at work]

The stick-police were called to cordon off the area.

A warning email was sent around the offices, that Sticky was missing, presumed dangerous. Signs were put up to warn people, and sightings were reported, but he was never seen again. Just how he escaped remained a mystery.

But lo - what was this! We discovered how it was that he managed to escape!

This required investigation.

The End...

?

Postscript

Other signs and warnings have appeared around the company premises. Months before sticky, when we got shiny new elevators, some enterprising staff members adorned them slightly to resemble the tardis from Dr. Who. Mandatory surveillance signs where appropriate were altered lightly for a nice Orwellian tinge. Following the Swine Flu outbreak, we obtained sanitisation stations with signs instructing on how to wash your hands correctly etc. Someone made an impostor sign so authentic looking that I never noticed it before it got taken down: How to use a urinal.

The other side of the door had an "Opening Door Hazard" sign, which also attracted some attention. If you can't read them clearly here, just click on the image to see the full version at the Picasa site. Oh, didn't I mention? All the images here were clickable.