Japanese designer Yukio Ota designed the exit sign on the left while Russian designers designed the one on the right. They were designed completely separately and both submitted to the ISO to be the international exit sign in the 1970′s.
Apparently international visitors and designers are surprised that Americans still use the nearly ubiquitous red “Exit” on a black or white sign. But if we are big enough to have our own currency and rely on the Imperial system when everyone else has switched to the Metric system, isn’t it possible for America to be an optimal sign region as well. You don’t have to speak English to know what a red EXIT means and in any case essentially all Americans know what it means already. Switching costs matter.
HT: Slate’s Julia Turner’s piece The Big Red Word vs. the Little Green ManThe international war over exit signs.
The problem with these signs is that they encourage people to run out of the exit; which would only increase confusion and panic and can cause more injuries/casualties in the case of an emergency.