Street signage: you're doing it wrong
Posted by Frank Maidens
Good street signage is important for any business. Anyone who tells you differently is either lying, or is dumb enough to already have a piece of crap design hanging over their front door.
Unlike the fickle, perpetually malleable nature of websites, a printed piece of street signage is markedly less capricious. Any piece of graphic design will ultimately become a representation of your shop, dealership, service parlour, etc.. but signage has the tendency to stick around for months, years, decades – often unchanged. It becomes a fixture in the physical landscape, so best take the time to get it right at the outset.
Good signage is like a good tie; it should punctuate an otherwise desirable facade. It says something about the character of your business. For example, "this is my livelihood, and I care about it." Or perhaps, "I'm smart enough to hire a professional to design my signage, because it makes me, and my business look legit."
Sadly, good signs generally go unnoticed. They just feel right, so no one gets stuck in the eye. Good signs encourage an audience of unfamiliar folk to come in and say hello.. or in other cases, serve as the pleasant reminder that "this is the place" and welcomes that all-important repeat business.
But what happens when signage goes wrong, or is trusted to the hands and sensibilities of someone who doesn't understand the basic scope of human taste? Let's have a look for our latest instalment of what not to do in visual communication design:
All in a name
Step 1 for any sign: pick a good name. Something memorable, cute maybe. Something that you'll be proud to call your own. My advice, try not to associate your business with terrorism, government conspiracies, or the fiery deaths of thousands of innocent people. Just doesn't sit right, ya know?
Even if the name of this store was supposed to be "911 Milk" (read: nine-one-one), is "emergency milk" the corner of the market you really want to aim for? Without the benefit of more neighbourhood research, I'd say that "leisurely milk" would probably be a better bet..
Raw deals
This one gets me every time. Whoever thought that some camp slaughterhouse font was the best choice for a raw fish restaurant needs to take a step back and imagine the connotations. Am I supposed to feel like I'm eating in a chainsaw-powered zombie apocalypse movie? ..or did some kid make this sign with a supersoaker filled with the blood of all you can eat fish heads?
Also, what's with matching the shitty splatter typeface with a would-be classy picture of sashimi? Such an obvious disconnect.. no wonder Viv and I have never eaten here.
Try to be timeless
I wish I knew how these letters were actually made – they're like magic to me. Flying in the face of everything I know about letterform design and the history of typography, this jazzy purple word-blast kicks my education and sensitivities both right in the teeth. Looking deeper I'm reminded that the universe is a fine balance of chaos and order, and that even the biggest stars eventually crumble in on themselves, shattering the event horizon with swirling black orbs of mystery. No seriously, this is one trippy piece, I'm glad I wasn't driving when I saw it.
Notice how the purple bg starts low in the 'H' and ends up almost spilling over the 'G' – captivating! Observe how the charming curves of 'Lê Thúy' are completely at odds with the rigid sharpness of the central text – such discord! Consider how you feel when you see the TEL number has no meaningful alignment with the MOLE REMOVAL text, or any other text above it – the very definition of insensitivity!
I feel my life is simultaneously better and worse for having seen this particular specimen. let's carry on..
I Mother Africa
Here's a great example of misplaced priorities. Is that really the best place for the silhouette of Mother Africa? Conceptually, I suppose it makes sense, right in the middle of fucking everything.. but hey man, I'm try to read here! Even the island of Madagascar makes me see 'R. Certainly not ideal for at-a-glance viewing.
There's an easy lesson with this one: respect the reading experience. Give words and phrases the required space so that the message is legible. Otherwise all the delight goes out the window, and the only thing left is frustration, and one less customer.
All dressed up and no where to go
There's a special place in atheist hell for pieces of trash design like this; it's a truly offending package. Take a close look. First of all, the sign uses a script font with superfluous graphic effects.. which is the visual equivalent of putting a chrome bow-tie on a dirty pirate. Secondly, it's not tracked properly, so the scripty strokes look like broken arm bones that have been poorly set by a drunk/disgruntled triage nurse (notice the 'as' combination). Lastly, the black text is fighting for its life to be legible on that portion of dark blue background. A big city nightmare that makes me thankful I never have to "envíos de dinero."
So bad it hurts
At the very least, street signage should be readable. Mind-bending purple jazzy text is better than whispy white bullshit that takes me 40 seconds to decipher.
This sign also reminds me of the fundamental importance of successful type pairings. Type should be paired for either visual harmony, or historical accuracy. Sadly, I see neither here. What's worse is the terrible choice of colours for the letters in 'Nails Spa'. What visionary thought these colours would look good on a thick red background? This photo barely does it justice, these colours IRL made me want to puke my guts. Also, why is 'Spa' all in blue? Did they run out of the other ugly colours? Combined with the utilitarian 'Tel' line, this shining piece of shit design is the high water mark of poor choices on Bloor Street West.
Shotgun Sushi
Look carefully at this example and tell me how many different looking things you see. It's like this sign was made exclusively from items in the TTC's Lost & Found bin. NOTHING MATCHES. What is that tree, and why is it important? Is that Curlz, or did someone create a shitty version of Curlz and then forget it on the subway? Who or what is MAZZ, and should I know what that is?
The complete lack of consistency and cohesion here is dumbfounding. It doesn't make any sense to even talk about bad alignment and positioning because even if this sign had some decent structure the composing pieces would still mismatch for failure. What's worse is the vinyl text SUSHI on the window below IN ANOTHER FONT, just incase your eyes weren't confused enough from the first dose above. What a joke. A sad, unintentional joke.
- Some people say that "done is better than perfect" but those are mostly startup people that don't appreciate what good design can actually accomplish.
This kind of accelerated rush to market has always frustrated me. Web-based MVPs are one thing, but when it comes to the more tangible/permanent nature of street signage, people need to slow the fuck down.
Done is better than perfect, sure.. but IMO, perfect (or really good) is always better than embarrassingly bad.