The Strange World of Tsunami Warning Signs
There are countless ways to depict massive waves crashing down on tiny stick figures — many of which are oddly amusing. Plus a new gift-subscription promotion!
In the introduction to my recent interview with The Art of Noticing’s Rob Walker, I mentioned that Rob likes to take photos of “Cuidado Man,” which is his name for the stick figure that appears on “Caution: Wet Floor” signs. Rob noticed years ago that Cuidado Man appears in a surprisingly wide array of poses, which makes for a fun collection project.
Right around the time I was working on that introduction, a massive earthquake struck off of Russia, sparking fears that a tsunami might hit Hawaii and/or California. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but there was a brief flurry of news reports about how it might happen. Some of those reports featured stock photos of tsunami warning signs featuring stick figures running away from a big wave, and I noticed that those stick figures, much like Cuidado Man, were non-standardized — several different poses and body postures. I made a note to circle back to that topic when I had more time.
Having now done that, I can report that tsunami warning signs, like wet floor signs, are a surprisingly diverse design category, with absolutely no uniformity. Stick figures, when they appear, strike lots of different poses, and ocean waves are likewise depicted every which way. It all makes for a lively series of graphics.
As I looked through these signs, I had some mixed feelings. On the one hand, there’s nothing funny about a tsunami, and an effective warning sign could literally mean the difference between life and death. On the other hand, seeing a stick figure, or in some cases several stick figures, about to get wiped out by a huge wave is, well, rather amusing. I actually laughed out loud when I saw some of these signs, and then I felt a bit bad for doing so. (The Cuidado Man signs are also pretty funny, of course, but the stakes are lower, so the humor is a less guilty pleasure.)
I came up with 56 different tsunami-related signs, although I’m sure there are more. Almost all are from the U.S., although I included a few from other countries for variety’s sake. (Helpfully, the word “tsunami” translates to “tsunami” in many other languages, including Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, and more.) As I gathered more and more sign examples, I found that they could be sorted into six primary categories. Here they are, from the simplest to the most complex; in a few instances, I’ve added captions with some commentary and observations.