Posted By Zoe Barnett Further to the arrows question... Does the running man have to be running in any particular direction? Can he be shown facing left if the arrow is pointing right? Personally I don't care, because I think people will follow the arrow and not the man(and anyway, some of the arrows will be pointing straight up, so where is he supposed to be running to then?) but I have a rather bolshy sign shop here to deal with who seem to be coming up with any and every query to get out of making the bl**dy things. (Fats, bless you, I passed on the details of the firm you recommended but to no avail.) Thank the gods it's Friday...

Posted By Merv Newman zoe, logic says that he runs (walks briskly)the way the arrow is pointing. If arrow is straight up or down then he runs towards the arrow. Actually I don't think you have to have the man and why can't it be a woman ? I thought it was thursday.

Posted By Stuart Nagle Zoe. Generally the 'running man' is running from right to left towards the exit. I do not recall seeing a sign contrary to this. The arrow of course will alter depending on the direction of travel to the exit, beit left right, up or down etc. The safety signs and signals regulations and relevant british standards for fire safety signs all concur with the above, so far as i can recall. In particular, if the BS shows the signs as they are (man running right to left), i believe they should follow this pattern and NOT be left to right. Regards... Stuart

Posted By Ken Taylor The man should be running towards the fridge, Zoe.

Posted By P Williams what makes you think all it is a male?

Posted By Nigel Singleton BSc Try buying them from Staples you get a choice of left or right and they are conveniently marked left exit and right exit on the display as well. If your sign company is being bolshy remind them you are the CUSTOMER!

Posted By Neil Pearson If the Running Man heads in the right direction he could end up Governator of California. Sorry, I'll get my coat...

Posted By Richard L Zoe, I have sent you the signs direct. Richard L

Posted By Mark Jacobs Sorry to join the party late. We have just received a visit from the local fire officer inspecting part of our building. An architect has specified signs for an area that comply with the British Standard located above exit doors. We were criticised by the fire officer as in his opinion a sign above an exit door with a down pointing arrow implies that on passing through the door you would go downward. The only alternative is an arrow pointing up which in my opinion is not much clearer.

Posted By Ken Taylor Now we are talking arrows, let me try to clear up some evident confusion. If you have to travel straight on through a doorway, the arrow on the sign above should point upward. Most of those seen for this purpose are pointing down incorrectly - but don't worry as we all understand it better that way. Personally, I preferred the old red letters on white background and have not yet met anyone who does not understand the words 'FIRE EXIT'. Oh, and by the way, please don't run during fire drills.

Posted By Ken Taylor I agree with you, of course, Merv with regard to the use of pictograms to explain safety messages to the non English language readers. It's just that the old words-only fire exit signs didn't seem to present any comprehension problems to those that I came across. The words 'FIRE' and EXIT' seemed to be quite common (with minor spelling variations) throughout countries using our alphabet and the fact that the sign was there above doors in bold red letters no doubt emphasised the intended message for those who were not. Please be assured that all our fire exit signs have the running man/woman-in-trousers these days but as to whether the 'forward arrows' are all pointing up, that's another story. You may even get internally-illuminated exit signs from the suppliers with the arrows pointing down instead of up. Our no smoking signs are also pictograms but I do notice that a number of places still use only the 'word version' of this message. This is of concern as, if they can't understand the health warning on the packet, they may also not be able to comprehend the signs. This doesn't refer to pipe smokers, of course. With best wishes.