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Men at Work in Slovenia

  Slovenia gets the workman from the same factory as Italy, Spain and (too) many other countries touching the Mediterranean Sea. The design is rapidly replacing the good old-fashioned country specific drawings. We've found the man with the loose head in all visited European countries from Portugal to Turkey with only two exceptions. Greece being terribly undersampled and France where they still know that Le Grand Général would have slashed any attempt to follow the pack (with reason).

At least for the moment, the species doesn't seem to migrate beyond the Mediterranean countries or countries strongly influenced by such. I was ready to name him the Southern-European kind, but since team members encountered him also in Egypt, I think we can speak of a Mediterranean Group of Men at Work signs.
Koper, VII.1998; pict. P. Geers

The Mediterranean Workforce
Cuba Azores Portugal Spain Italy
Malta Croatia Turkey Lebanon Egypt

A sign belongs to this Mediterranean Group if it fits most of the following:
  • the man is icon-like (match-stick type)
  • his head hovers above the shoulders
  • he has no feet
  • he stoops slightly
  • there is only one heap reminiscent of the thing you don't want to bring home after a walk in the woods.
  • there is no bottomline
We have also defined a Mediterranean Group of Children's crossings which grow in the same limited region. The U.K group of road signs is much more wide-spread and includes rock-signs also.

VIII.2007; pict. Couvreur & Paermentier
Roadsign diversity in Slovenia took a boost with the latest finds. It's not all the Mediterranian uniform drawing yet. I'm not entirely happy though. The man got his feet back — that's good —, but the heap is reduced into a featureless triangle — and that's not so good. Why didn't they just order a new batch of the good old wheatered sign shown in the middle? Making a joint order with Croatia was probably a cost saving measure. Quality always looses against cost.

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More roadsigns from Slovenia: Children's crossing - Falling Rocks