One of the never ending issues for graphic designers is 'how to show bisexuality without showing three (or more) people'. Most of them never work it out, so go for three people…
.. and sometimes, they add a bench!
I am not entirely sure which of the first two came first, but the Norwegian one is actually aimed at bisexual men, so…
English translation of the text, with the help of Google Drive doing OCR and translation of images:
Men who have sex with men should have a health check regularly.
Men who have sex with men are today among those most at risk of becoming infected with the AIDS virus, HIV. Bisexual men who become infected through sexual contact with other men can then infect their female as well as male partners.
You should know if you are infected with HIV. Both because you are responsible for not infecting others, and for your own part. HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases do not always cause symptoms. Therefore, we recommend men who have sex with men to take regular health checks.
At the Counselling Service at the Oslo Health Council, we are happy to talk to you about safer sex. You can take the HIV test (anonymously if you wish), be screened for other sexually transmitted diseases and offered Hepatitis B (jaundice) vaccine. You decide which of the offers you want to take advantage of. And all consultations are free.
The counselling service for gays is a special part of the Oslo Health Council. We who work here have broad experience and are particularly concerned with gay and bisexual health problems. Here you will meet understanding at the same time as you get professional help.
Welcome Tuesday and Wednesday at 16.00 – 18.00. There are no appointments. For further information call: [phone number].
Oslo Health Council
St. Olavspl. 5, 4th floor
Note that the hand-holding of the men is literally behind her back, so there's no implication of this being a relationship that she knows about.
Unlike the Norwegian poster, the New South Wales, Australia one – probably first published in 1994 – is absolutely aimed at the female partners of bisexual men, despite having an almost identical central image:
Do you think your partner could be having sex with men?
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
The Women Partners of Bisexual Men Project [phone number]
AIDS Council of NSW [phone number]
AIDS Hotline [phone numbers, including TTY for deaf callers]
Family Planning Association [phone number]Thanks to all the women who have been involved in the project. Thanks to models Tim, Tegan, Michael. Photographer Patrick Earle. Design: David Hodge & Partners London
Here, there's no information beyond 'you're not the only one (being betrayed?)' and a referral to a group, but there was at least one leaflet that used the same photo that had more information from the group that published both.
Interestingly, even some of the smaller design decisions – the gap between the woman and the 'other man', the way he has a sleeve rolled up (so you can just see the hair on his arm?) and the woman has short sleeves (so you can just see that there isn't any hair?) – are identical.
Given the design was from a London agency, I wonder if there were uses of the 'three on a bench' imagery in the UK and if they were responsible (but uncredited) for the Norwegian one too.
Also from 1994, there's the 'one person in two separate twosomes' (and a dog!) version of the bench from France where you do see everyone's faces:
I have two lovers, I protect myself
Because this one has just the headline, it is only about protecting the bisexual man rather than his partners. How he protects himself isn't stated: condoms? making sure his partners never meet? having a dog to put off muggers?
Again, the implication is that his female lover does not know about the male one..
.. even if the dog does.
As referenced in Vaneet Mehta's Bisexual Men Exist: A Handbook for Bisexual, Pansexual and M-Spec Men!
