Bite-Size Semiotics

Two negations side by side

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This sign we photographed on a shopping cart somewhere1 in Finland. The content is quite straightforward with a stick-figure icons depicting sitting [on the cart] or running with the cart, both overlaid with the classical red slashed-circle NO symbol.

What I like in it is the side-by-side juxtaposition of forbidding both a movement and a static pose. The poses are not directly linked, and this sign was borderline a Boring sign, but the juxtaposition really did tickle something in me.


  1. I forgot where I took this photo, most likely in Espoo, possibly a Lidl.