All employers have a duty of care to provide Health & Safety information for their employees and providing each employee with a H&S handbook is one way to ensure that the information is readily accessible to all. However, the old adage about leading horses to water springs to mind.

Let's face it, a Health & Safety handbook is never going to be the book of choice to take on holiday! Zurich wanted to go one step further and find a way to ensure that employees actually read the handbook.

The solution was inspired: make it amusing and entertaining. The problem here was that the text had to be straightforward and unambiguous ––– not much room for humour there! You don't want your employees thinking that the bit about not shoving their heads in the shredder was a joke!

They decided on amusing illustrations that relate to the text. Having worked on a number of briefs for the company and also provided cartoons for their newsletter, I had built up a reputation as much for my sense of humour as my draughtsmanship and adherence to deadlines. So they contacted me.

I produced a sequence of nine illustrations, some of which are reproduced below.

Left: Cover design for the handbook. Zurich were adamant that they did not want the portrayal of an accident on the cover. I sent in a number of concept roughs and the 'falling piano' image was chosen so, presumably, an accident about to happen was OK.

Humour works best when it is understated. Despite frequent depictions in cartoons, there's nothing funny about a piano falling on anybody but there is something inexplicably amusing about an indirect clue giving the viewer an insight into what is about to happen. I call this suspended anticipation. The fact that the poor victim is looking up and has just become aware of his impending fate adds to the humour.