You ever drive past a business and think, “What on earth do they actually do?”
Yeah—same. All the time.
As a local signwriter on the Gold Coast, I spend a lot of time driving around, checking out the signage landscape. And I’ve got to say, there’s a worrying trend I keep spotting: signs that are big, bold, beautifully designed… and absolutely useless.
Let’s Get One Thing Straight—A Sign Isn’t Just Wall Art
Somewhere along the way, people seem to have forgotten that signs aren’t just there to look pretty. They’re not a decorative mural, a personality test, or a secret code. They exist for one purpose:
To tell people who you are, what you do, and why they should care.
(And ideally, before they’ve driven past at 60km/h.)
The Biggest Signage Sins I See Every Week
Let me paint you a picture—or rather, read you one from the side of a van I saw the other day… oh wait, I couldn’t. Because it was written in cursive so curly it looked like someone sneezed in calligraphy.
Seriously, unless your target market is grandmas with magnifying glasses, please, ditch the unreadable cursive fonts. Your sign shouldn’t require a decoder ring or a degree in typography to understand.
Here are a few other common signage fails I see far too often:
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Tiny text on massive signs – If you’ve got great highway frontage, don’t waste it with 6pt font. That’s not minimalist—it’s invisible.
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The “effects overload” wrap – Lens flares, drop shadows, 17 fonts, 12 colours, and not a single clue what the business does. Just because you can use every design tool doesn’t mean you should.
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No clear message – If your sign doesn’t clearly say what your business is about, you might as well hang up a blank sheet and hope for the best.
Your Sign Is Your Silent Salesperson
Think of your sign as the hardest-working employee you’ve got. It’s out there day and night, rain or shine, doing one job: attracting new business. But it can’t do that if it’s confusing, cluttered, or trying too hard to win a design award.
What makes a sign actually work?
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Clear, bold messaging (no riddles or tongue twisters, please)
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Readable fonts (looking at you, cursive)
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A simple call to action (like a phone number, website, or even just “Open!”)
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Consistent branding (so people remember you after the first glance)
At The Signwriter, We Don’t Just Make Signs—We Make Signs That Sell
We’re based right here on the Gold Coast and we know what works (and what definitely doesn’t). We don’t just slap some text on a background and call it a day—we design with strategy, purpose, and yes, a bit of good old-fashioned common sense.
Whether it’s a shopfront, van wrap, or billboard, we’ll help you create signage that turns heads for the right reasons—and actually brings in more business.
If you’ve got a sign that’s more confusing than convincing, it might be time for a makeover.Let’s make your signage impossible to ignore—and even harder to misunderstand.