Cards Against Humanity is known for their outlandish and hilarious products — from card decks to more personal projects like their “Your emails are bad and you should feel bad” book project. They recently shared with us a photo of the poop emoji sign they use for their unisex bathroom and we had to learn more. We asked Dani Reis, the CAH intern who was tasked with updating the office signage, a little bit about the process.
Hey Dani, tell us about the office signs you created for Cards Against Humanity.
Every intern picks a project to do before they start their internship. When we all got together to brainstorm mine we were looking around the office and noticed how terrible our office signs looked in our space. We just moved to this new space featured in Curbedand the signs were basically made out of foam core spray mounted paper and completely falling apart. They really looked bad and deserved some love!
Walk us through your design process.
First we defined which rooms needed signs. Once we had a clear understanding, I started working with the card copywriters to come up with a clever name to accompany each sign. We knew from the beginning we wanted the symbols to be very straightforward and there were certain limitations to the machines and materials which informed the icon style. Each symbol represented what happened in each room. Writer room got a pencil and the streaming studio has a microphone.
How did you go from idea to actually having something to hang?
I am a skilled digital fabricator and studied industrial design so when it came down to it this project was actually very right for me. I first started the project by looking through Noun Project’s icons (little product placement here). We downloaded a bunch and ended up combining a few different ideas into one. Once we had our set done in illustrator, I moved them to Fusion 360 to take them over to the fabrication shop here in the neighborhood. We ended up getting a membership to a maker space called Lost Arts and in there I was able to use their CNC machines to create the signs themselves.
So… how’d you land on the poop icon?
What is the one universal truth that everybody does, even Beyonce has in common with you? Everybody shits, even Beyonce. If you ever lose faith in humanity, think of the one thing we can all relate back to.
How can others tackle a project like this for their boring office??
Dani’s supervisor chimed in with: “We give our interns lots of creative control, which means we end up trusting them with large projects. Dani ran this entire project creatively. Give your interns too much responsibility and little oversight, and they’ll surprise you.”
Thank you Dani! Your work continues to inspire us. We may just have to put your icons up in our own office. Get the full collection here and adorn your space with the Cards against humanity iconography. Tweet us photos of your clever office signage icons @noun_project.
