We have all seen the homeless on street corners holding hand-scrawled signs. Pentagram Papers 39 features signs from the personal collection of author and legendary Texas musician Joe Ely, photographed by Randal Ford, and a series of large format portraits of homeless people by Austin photographer Michael O’Brien. Ely wrote the foreword.

These signs, some of the most basic forms of graphic communication in our society today, combined with O’Brien’s unblinking black-and-white portraits, are a reminder that with a little bad luck we could easily find ourselves in similar straits—and that at times we can all use a helping hand.