Thursday 25 September 2008

I Saw the Sign, it Opened Up My Eyes

Often, while walking past things, you tend to look at it and imagine the amount of time that went into creating it. Perhaps it's just me. A large building, for example, I think about someone saying “we need a building there” than designers, architects, builders, electricians, plumbers and the list goes on. Problems will invariably arise and people will get together have a meeting or two to solve it, you can't help but admire that.

Imagine one day, our friends at Severn Trent Water were, one day faced with a broken sign. A few of the guys got together and hammered out a solution. I'm sure this meeting had coffee and no doubt biscuits were served but that's all ok as these people had a problem and they were damned if they weren't going to collectively solve it.

I must ask, how many hours were collectively spent brain storming before they came upon this inventive stop-gap? Amazing!

8 comments:

anonemouse said...

and don't you think that it's reassuring to know, even in times of global economic crisis, there are people out there who still get paid for coming up with this kind of thing...
absolute genius!

Muhamad Lodhi said...

Genius indeed. Gotta love the wit.

Anonymous said...

Hi Josh

I wondered if you could let me know where this "under repair" sign resides? I'd like to have a word in someone's ear about this...

Cheers

Josh said...

Anon, why do you ask? You're not one of the original designers who wants to show off his handwork?

If so, it sounds like you've earned 2 fans in ER and Muhamad above...

Ariane said...

Life is demanding, without understanding. Ahem.

journeyman said...

Hey Josh - I work for Severn Trent Water and want to discuss the futility of making signs to tell people we're fixing signs with appropriate staff.

This kind of stuff isn't owned centrally - signage and ad-hoc comms are particularly difficult to manage in a company of 4,000 - but I do work with alongside the people who can take ownership of withdrawing such idiocy from service.

journeyman said...

And, umm, as it's picked up an account I didn't know I was signed in as, I am the previous anon poster!

Josh said...

Jman, I can certainly appreciate where you are coming from but I feel that perhaps a broader policy might be in order here but suffice to say, the sign I'm talking about has already been taken out of service.