Hobo Symbology





I love these hobo symbols, they form such a basic signage system, simple and effective. It was developed by hobos in the 1950's who communicated with each other by drawing these images on the street in chalk.

You may remember a reference to them in Mad Men when a Hobo drew the 'Dishonest Man' symbol on the gate of the young Don Draper's house in a flashback scene.

The whole set can be seen over on World Famous Design Junkies.

Images copyright World Famous Design Junkies.
Via Notcot.
on

6 comments:

  1. Top Bird @ Wee Birdy6 January 2010 at 14:33

    I remember that scene in Madmen - how fascinating! Love the 'kind-hearted woman' cat! xx

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  2. Make Do Style6 January 2010 at 20:26

    How interesting!

    there was a recent radio interview with the police in Surrey & the Met who had noticed many of this symbols appearing mainly in reference to burgling a house - it seems burglars have ripped off the hobos.

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  3. Kickcan & Conkers7 January 2010 at 13:17

    This, I love.

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  4. Sell! Sell!7 January 2010 at 16:40

    These are great. I love the design of the book too - black and white illustration and really nice type.

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  5. red road studio8 January 2010 at 09:07

    It's fab isn't it - we used the hobo language to create a large wooden sculpture in Kirkcaldy Memorial Gardens - thanks for reminding me! http://www.adamsmithcollege.ac.uk/relations/public/pressreleases/?prid=20070110N02

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  6. Anonymous26 January 2010 at 23:01

    A friend made stickers of with these symbols (along with their meanings) and would put them up in appropriate places. He ended up getting thrown out of the White House for putting one on the door of the oval office during a tour. I seem to recall it being the cross symbol, which means "religious talk gets free meal."

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