Ad-hoc office signage

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About Ad-hoc office signage

When offices are built, all the standard, boring signs are installed (Exit, Restroom, etc.), but only after people start working there do the really important signs get put up. The hand-made signs that tell you the culture, the local customs, and the history of the company. This group celebrates that ad-hoc office signage.

When you go into a restaurant and you see a sign that says "No Dogs Allowed," you might think that sign is purely proscriptive: Mr. Restaurant doesn't like dogs around, so when he built the restaurant he put up that sign.

If that was all that was going on, there would also be a "No Snakes" sign; after all, nobody likes snakes. And a "No Elephants" sign, because they break the chairs when they sit down.

The real reason that sign is there is historical: it is a historical marker that indicates that people used to try to bring their dogs into the restaurant.

Most prohibitive signs are there because the proprietors of an establishment were sick and tired of people doing X, so they made a sign asking them to please not.

— Joel Spolsky