Baltimore

Puzzling Government Graphic of the Day

Great moments in public communication

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The City of Baltimore's homelessness program has produced a pamphlet that shows where various services can be found. It includes a map, and it also includes a key explaining the symbols on that map.

Unfortunately, it isn't immediately obvious that this is what the latter graphic is for. It's labeled "legend," but it appears on a separate, more prominent page than the map—and on top of that, it's laid out in a rather bizarre way. The friend who passed it along to me compared it to the infamous butterfly ballot of the 2000 presidential election:

City of Baltimore

So men get training, women make food (or maybe the women are supposed to be the food?), you can launder your kids, the showers are gay-friendly, and drug rehabilitation leads nowhere? This is—how shall I put this?—not a triumph of graphic design.

Oh, well. At least the caseworkers appear to have phones.