Signs Peter Gosling
Creators: Peter Gosling
Length: 2 minute
Watch The Cartoon

Signs is a Flash cartoon using signs to symbolize actions. Throughout the cartoon various signs, such as safety hazard notices, washroom symbols and wheelchair access areas convey the story Bob, a sign character, carelessly starts a fire causing him to escape and generate a fury where other sign characters try to run away from the dangerous premises.. Now, can Bob and the others escape before the fire causes an explosion?

The story is quite simple and its focus is more on the clever usage of the signs within the story. As many of the signs are about security, it also warns viewers about being careful when escaping danger. Each time as sign appears on the screen, the story is interrupted as the full symbol appears. However, it doesn't intrude on the story's dynamic. Gosling could have integrated more signs in his story.

The major criticism that I have about the animation is that Gosling did not clean up the signs very well for the animation. It seems that he scanned a hand drawn animation and vectorized it within Macromedia Flash. Although the animation is fluid, the lack of care for the clean up diminishes the impact. As signs are symbols that are always clean and sharp, the animation lack some stylization.
Hervé