Safety First

Leaving the normal bubble makes me look at things as if they were totally new. Today's revelation, on planes to Denver by way of Minneapolis, was about Safety Cards and Gradients. Gradients often look cheesy. But the inflatable life vest is the perfect use of flat (uninflated) and gradients (inflated). A gradient gives volume to the inflated vest of a preternaturally-calm traveler.

Simple, universal icons aren't so simple to do. On the "Exit if" info shown below, the fire looks friendly (popcorn anyone) and the debris looks like styrofoam.

Of course, you don't want a Safety Card to show terrified people holding their heads and screaming; stylization is the only way to go. That said, panels 3 and 4 are amusingly playful. I particularly enjoy the intrepid "we can do it" woman in the blue skirt, arms akimbo.

Finally, one segmment shows a baby every mother must love in a catastrophe: a child who'll calmly stay with arms outstretched throughout the vest-donning process. I've never been a mother, but I imagine that the instructions will be jettisoned in favor of instinct to make sure the real child stays as calm as the kid below.