The genius behind stick figure toilet signs

We use them every day without thinking about them, but the universally recognised symbols for male and female toilet signs have much more going on than it seems. Jonathan Glancey explores the enduring appeal of these quaint but powerful pictograms.Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is a magnificent and serious film, sparkling intermittently with surprising and knowing humour even about the lowly toilet. When the character Dr Heywood Floyd, chairman of the National Council of Astronautics, is caught short on board his Pan-Am space flight from the United States to a giant orbital space station, he is faced with a sign warning “Zero Gravity Toilet: Passengers are advised to read instructions before use”. There follows a list of 10 inscrutable instructions spanning 700-odd words; it would take an average person four minutes to read these out loud. In space, no one can hear you scream in frustration...