The message is “Don’t park your bike in front of our property”.

However, people can have different approach to convey this message. The first group of pictures [1-3] are taken from a residential condo, while the second group [4-9] is from an elementary school only one block away from that condo.

Group 1 — Condo

The sign from the condo uses a very aggressive, rude voice to write the message. The translation of the sign is:

ココに自転車、バイク置くな！
手続を経て撤去する

(DO NOT park your bicycle or bike HERE! It will be removed and requires formal procedure to claim it)

In case you are not familiar with Asian/Japanese comic expression, the Curved Cross symbol actually means anger and frustration (see image [10]). The sign maker added that symbol to show the absolute intolerant of any unauthorized parking in front of the property.

Group 2 — Elementary School

The signs are much softer and cuter as they are hand drawn by the elementary students. I could feel quite guilty if I have to park my bike here, as if I have disappointed a bunch of little kids who are just trying their best to beg me not to do so.

Error Message

What about error message? I have an example of angry error message: a Windows error message dialog telling you can the Flight Schedule Screen is having some hardware failure, as well as “There are unused icons on your desktop“. Scary and frustrating. Cute error message: Twitter’s famous Fail Whale.

Do you have some fun example to share as well?

Related posts:

1. No Smoking, Not?

About Calvin C

Hello there, I’m Calvin Chun-yu Chan. Grew up in Hong Kong, studied and worked in Canada as web engineer+designer, now designing mobile apps in Tokyo. On my blog I would like to share my opinions on design, usability, culture and creativity. Follow me on: Twitter @calvincchan Google+ Profile

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