Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign

Writing my midterm for Visual Literacy class this past week got me thinking about signs that we see all the time. Stop signs, bathroom signs, warning signs ~ all posted to let us know what we need to or should do.

This idea made me think back to a sign I saw while traveling with my family to Niagara Falls. We had made the hike across a bridge over to Canada to see the falls better. Suddenly we were in a completely different country, although it didn’t feel like it given that the area was filled with tourists.

While strolling down the sidewalk with clear view of both the United States and Canadian sides of the falls, there was a sign posted every so often on the rail that kept us all from falling off the cliff. All that was written on the sign was “danger,” and yet the message was so much stronger than that. It screamed “Don’t climb on the rail!” to me – a very important message at that point. It was the sign that prompted me to look down... and then back away from the cliff’s straight shot down to the water below despite the fact that there was no danger to me because the rail was very sturdy.

Important signs that would mean nothing without our visual literacy skills surround us constantly. When we pay attention, we can learn a lot.

Photos from my private collection.