« What is your entrepreneurial IQ? | Main | Peer-to-peer learning for business leaders »
April 3, 2006
Nephew art signs are a tragic waste
A sign should enhance your brand and communicate a positive message about your business. It doesn’t have to be beautiful, but it does need to be appropriate.
I expect magic-marker-on-cardboard signs at the farmer’s market. And I expect well-lit permanent signs on retail businesses. What amazes me is how many businesses invest a lot in high-end sign hardware and nothing in the sign content.
(In fact, "nephew art" is a recognized problem in the professional sign business, and the source of many ethical dilemmas.)
A local bank has 18 branches and an acceptable logo. They did not ask the graphic designer to show them how to use the logo on signage, though. Every time I drive past their large, expensive, backlit, ugly sign, I think to myself that this bank doesn’t know what it is doing. (I was amazed to find out they have 18 branches.)
A local real estate agency spent a fortune on signs I see all over town. It is clear they didn’t spend a penny on what the sign looks like. The “art” is straight out of a word processor.
As a rule of thumb, you are wasting money if you didn’t spend a quarter of the cost of your new sign on the art. (This is why the magic-marker-on-cardboard signs are okay. At the farmer’s market.)
As a rule of life, you are wasting money if you have a sign made with art created in Microsoft Word. Or using the Papyrus font.
- See some really ugly signs.
- And stop using Comic Sans.
Posted by Bob Pritchett at April 3, 2006 5:00 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://ancientblogs.logos.com/mt-cgi/mt-tb.cgi/81