Looks silly / works clearly

Here's a distant echo of the round shapes in the Companion logo. Although it looks comical to me,* this pictogram for handicapped hailers serves a purpose other than to somewhat-gratuitously tell an out-of-towner how to nab a cab. So, I'll stop snarking.

One cab driver probably gives a thumbs up to the pictogram and what it represents. According to a now-ancient New York Times article, when Rocco Filippone's son, then a student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, asked for advice about an assignment to build a better cab, Filippone said:

it would be a good idea to build a taxi that could handle a wheelchair. Too many drivers pass up passengers in wheelchairs because they do not believe they can afford the time it takes to help the passenger into the cab and then fold up the wheelchair and stow it in the trunk.

Here's more from the virtual old news bins: In November 2007, the incomparable Armin Vit wrote in depth about the taxi logo itself on his and Bryony Gomez-Palacio's blog Brand New (I realize that quoting a blog is like Mad Magazine's "Spy vs. Spy" feature.)


* Possibly, most pictograms seem comical to me.