This should not have happened. We should not have had to stoop to this level, people. I should not have to bust out photoshop to get folks browsing a book table to read signs.
It's an embarrassing day for humanity.
The situation:
Every fourth Sunday, Tom and I man the book table during muffin hour at church.
The problem:
People get their muffin and coffee, and then proceed to meander over to the table and set their coffee on it. And then it spills. Every time.
Tom and I are miffed.
So in an attempt to prevent their embarrassment and protect our books, someone kindly made a few signs—respectable-get-the-job-done-thank-goodness-this-isn't-word-art 72 pt Times New Roman in black on some white computer paper—asking the nice folk politely to please not place their coffee on the table, thank you.
The effect:
People get their muffin and coffee, and then proceed to meander over to the table and set their coffee on it. And then it spills. Every time.
Tom and I are miffed.
Tom, being a retired NYPD, jokes we should threaten to punch them. I think the sign should be doing that for us. And so that was the goal here—a visual punch in the face. We want people to notice it and get it. BAM.
We deployed them last week, and are very pleased with the results so far—not one coffee made contact with the table! I think we'll probably need a graphical refresh down the road when people get used to them and start ignoring them again. I'm very interested to see how long these will last—exactly how long it takes for for a group to begin to filter out a specific instance of visual messaging.
But for now, mission accomplished.
