A Sign on a Barcelona Beach that Made Me Smile

Look carefully at the icons illustrating the sign to the left, snapped on a rather chilly beach in Spain’s Barcelona.

Now ponder: How did the conversation go between the sign’s designers? Let us imagine.

“Hey, Julio, how do you figure we should represent the concept ‘Don’t party here all night?’ on this new sign we have to make?”

“I don’t know, Jorge, maybe some empty alcohol bottles and a stick figure vomiting?”

“That’s gross, man. What about a close up of booties shaking to music?”

“Now you’re on to something, Jorge… Music… But how do we represent exuberant party tunes blasting for all hours on a beach?”

[A thoughtful silence ensues.]

Both sign designers leap up simultaneously and exclaim: “STICK FIGURE BONGO DRUMS!!!”

Side note: See how this sign is in Catalan, Spanish, and English? So are most signs in Barcelona! When there isn’t a translation, the single language is usually Catalan.