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Friday, January 9. 2009

Good design: in the most mundane of things

Comments 4
 

Pedestrian traffic lights are always more or less the same. Most often you can find two circles that change from Red to Green, the circles tend to hold a boring man pictogram walking when green and standing when red. Ho hum. 

When I was in Berlin recently I noticed that there they use the Ampelmannchen (Ampelmaennchen). This is a hold over from East German times and quite original because in the rest of Germany (indeed rest of Western Europe) the boring old man symbol is the norm.

I find the Ampelmannchen to be irrisistebly cute. When the signal is red, he stands there, arms outstreched as if he wants a big hug, is waiting to be joined in a circle of people holding hands or is sincere about stopping you. When the light is green and he is walking he seems hurried and busy, going places. The hat would seem to be more in place on a Spanish bullfighter but I love how they've taken something completely mundane and standard and transformed it into something original.

Posted by Joris Peels in Inspiration, What's Hot at 16:14

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its always feels fresh to see a new twist on something . because of our mind's habit of passively expecting something out of a habitual sight, a certain prediction on what we've seen hundreds of times, seeing a fresh twist comes as a pleasant surprise, simple unexpected twists of mundane anticipation often jerk a chuckle out of us as well.
#1 maxwildcat on 2009-01-12 00:18 (Reply)
Exactly!
#2 Joris on 2009-01-12 13:20 (Reply)
That little green man looks excited!!
#3 T. Shawn Johnson on 2009-01-13 02:13 (Reply)
^ has a perverted mind akin to mine. The little green dude looks indeed like he saw something nice while crossing the street... x)
#4 aws357 on 2009-01-15 17:43 (Reply)

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