Put the real thing on their sign

By signcraft

Posted on Sunday, September 1st, 2024

In the days before most everyone could read, the sign maker’s task usually included adding an image to a sign that represented what the business did. (A picture or 3D object that is used to represent a word or idea is called a rebus.) So the shoemaker’s sign was a shoe, and the pawn shop’s was three gold balls, sometimes with no text at all. As more people could read, words came to deliver the primary message of a sign.

But a rebus still works—especially when you can put the real thing on the sign. You’ve seen them: the VW Beetle on the auto repair shop roof, the boat atop the marina sign. They naturally draw the eye because they surprise the viewer. If you can’t use “the real thing,” try a 3D graphic version of whatever they sell, or make or do.

Here are a few examples of this approach at work:

Mark Agnew, Agnew Graphics, Owosso, MI, put the concept to use on this sign for a go-cart track.

“The client wanted to emphasize OKS,” says Mark, “because that’s what all the fans know it as. I knew, though, that anyone who didn’t know that would have to read the secondary copy to find that out. I told him that using a cart would quickly deliver the message to anyone who saw the sign. He loves it and has had a great response.”

Customers like it when you deliver creative solutions like this. It makes sales easier and makes the sign more memorable—adding value to the customer’s investment. It can also bring referrals to your shop when those satisfied customers tell their friends about their sign.