21.5.15

It made sense to someone

I like this next notice. Everything I'm trying to discover about signage? It was just subverted.


It's not like one of those signs ('For sale 58,000 miles +MOT') that has come unstuck from its site-specific location. There it might have made sense (car window), but you read it at the margins of a canal (for example). At least here it can become food for your creative imagination in storytelling.

The sign above is not one of those signs either that you know is intended for a narrow, specific audience, such as a previously invited person. ('Party Here!') The text on this sign suggests the writer has a public audience in mind; the writer wants us to know when the opening is (whoever they are and whatever it is that will open).

And in terms of its siting over time, we can see this notice is intended to stay here in this public space. At least for one week. The information is relevant for more than one day.

Then again, I'm confused by the grammar. The title suggests DAY - a single day - which is a temporary opening, but the list gives times for Monday to Sunday.

But I note this sign hasn't been scribbled in haste. The notice is not handwritten. Someone went to the trouble to use a computer and colour printer to make the notice as clear as they could (but they didn't anticipate rain).

I guess at the writer. Not a large corporate business (they would have put in a company name). Not a public authority (they would have made the sign waterproof). There is the rather vague and open-ended 'Any request' line at the bottom of the paper with a contact number (please don't call it).

Despite it all, this notice still doesn't make much sense to me. I have no idea what's open. A service? A business? A retail shop? An access point? There is no other signage above and no other name around.

So I'm left guessing what might open. I look to the positioning of this sign to give me more clues. Where is it placed? What is it near? What other clues are around? There are shops on either side of this notice. Is this sign for a shop, rather than a service? Opening hours can advertise a shop, yes?

Maybe I have to come back tomorrow to check. The day I take this photo is Thursday. There is nothing listed for Thursday. I have to guess that the blank space means 'not open'. Because the notice displaying the headline TEMPORARY OPENING DAY is displayed on a shutter which is closed.

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