A Tragic Accident
Unfortunately it only takes seconds for a child to drown. Most people are not aware that drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children between the ages of one and four. The Collingsworth family knows this fact all too well. At the age of two and a half, Joshua Collingsworth passed away due to complications from a drowning accident. Now the impact of his life lives on through a foundation named in his honor, dedicated to preventing drowning accidents.
An Organization Dedicated to Saving Lives
Clarion is a proud water safety partner with the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate children and adults worldwide about water safety through drowning prevention campaigns and early childhood water safety training. As part of this safety partnership, we volunteered our design services to create a new, standards-compliant “NO KIDS ALONE ZONE” pool safety sign.
Clarion redesigned the Foundation’s sign (left) to create a new, standards-compliant sign using best practice formatting (right).
A New Sign Comes to Life
To develop new signage that would effectively communicate to both adults and young children, we relied on our thorough knowledge of the ANSI Z535 standards, as well as our expertise in creating ISO-style graphics to communicate safety messages across language barriers – or in this case to communicate to non-reading-age children. The result is a sign that uses a system of design components to communicate a “complex message” (one in which the viewer has to understand two or more things; in this case that water is dangerous for children, and that children should always be with an adult when near water). The new sign uses symbols, color, and text to notify kids and adults about water safety through:
- An ANSI Z535-style signal word panel to communicate a central message in word form (at the top of the sign)
- A graphic panel that uses symbols and color to communicate the message to children of non-reading age (in the middle of the sign)
- A text message to reinforce the central messaging and provide instructions to adults (at the bottom of the sign)
Clarion "NO KIDS ALONE ZONE" signs, which are part of the Clarion pool safety sign system product line, are offered at special discount pricing. Clarion is dedicating proceeds from this special signage to support the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation.
Where Can You Find These Water Safety Signs?
Visit the Clarion pool safety sign catalog
Contact us to discuss your specific needs