Once his concept was selected, Ota worked with the Japanese fire safety commission and the government to fine-tune the design. He remembers presenting 58 variations of the running man, tweaking the angle of the legs after a member of the committee objected to a figure that looked like he was sprinting out the door. The goal, Ota recalls, was to suggest that people should “run slowly.~ The big red word, the little green man, and the international war over exit signs.
