Story Behind the Choking Sign: City Aesthetics and Escaping from New York with Phil Ashworth

How did a dystopian John Carpenter movie end up saving lives in New York cafes? In this new episode of the Cultural Fingerprints podcast, illustrator Phil Ashworth tells the story behind one of city’s most beloved pieces of restaurant safety signage: his Heimlich poster starring Snake Plissken, the reluctant antihero of Escape from New York (1981), begrudgingly saving a choking victim in a bombed-out cityscape (and checking their mouth for hidden razor blades along the way). We trace Phil’s path from drawing at his dad’s drafting table and studying illustration at RISD to pursuing the craft in the city, and we discuss how a basement brainstorm with Trey Kirchoff at Gimme! Coffee helped kick off a citywide wave of personalized choking posters in the cafes and bars of late-2000s New York.

Phil Ashworth: philashworth.com

For more information: rheakapur.info and culturalfingerprints.com