Signs Can Lead the Way
As the weather is warming up here down south in March, a friend and I recently decided to dust off the golf clubs and take to the course. We searched online for some places to play, hoping to find a relatively cheap round with decent reviews. We found a course that fit our criteria, except with one negative that everyone in their reviews seemed to mention — a lack of signage. “Weird,” I said to my golf partner. “I think for a price this good, a lack of signage isn’t a big deal.” Boy was I wrong. Upon our arrival at the parking lot, we walked around for five minutes just trying to find the door to enter the pro shop. Once we’d paid and were ready to go, well, we didn’t really know where to go. There were no signs pointing to a tee box or Hole #1. The experience was frustrating to say the least. There were some cart paths along the course that forked, and there was no indication as to which way golfers were supposed to go. It ended up putting a damper on our experience that day. Some simple signs around the course are something that would be such an easy and cost-effective solution for the course’s problems. They don’t need anything fancy, just simple communications to golfers to direct them through their round.
The experience made me think about how much we use signs, one of the simplest and most effective forms of communication. The signs direct our roads, our sidewalks, our shopping experiences and countless other aspects of our lives. People pay attention to them, they are cost-effective, and they can look good. We try to keep this in mind with our clients when we are helping them communicate a project that affects massive amounts of people in their offices. The posters we design and implement for them aren’t the foundation of the communication effort (it’s unwise to pack them with too much information). However, they can be instrumental in guiding employees to discover more about any kind of internal communication, whether it’s a special event, new or updated benefits information or any other announcement.