🪧 What Makes a Good Sign?

[Hines (Bill)]

I have a new building for the town of Susanville, originally sold by Pola as a hotel. My town already has a station, hotel, dancehall, saloon, eatery, bunkhouse, freight station, and a hardware store/emporium. I’m considering repurposing the building as a veterinarian’s office combined with the Susanville Telegraph & Telephone company.

I’ve been trying to channel my inner Jon Radder, but I’m unsure about my choices in fonts and organization for the signage. Does this style fit the 1880-1920?

[JRad (Jon Radder)]

Well, I’m a modern sign guy, definitely not an expert on that period.

In modern sign design, the rules are simple. #1 rule is readability. To achieve that designers use high contrast colors usually avoiding red and blue, fonts that are not too fancy and letters large enough to be read at a distance.

Back then everything was hand made. Carved or raised letters were rare because of the expense of hand fabrication. Most signs were two dimensional and all were hand painted. I did some quick research and it really depends on the area; rural or urban and economy; boom or bust. This Shorpy.com photo is kind of typical of early twentieth century in a local bust economy…

My personal choice of your designs is A - It’s clean and simple. Clip art didn’t exist back then and even today, good sign shops keep designs simple.

My father was in the advertising business and held most every position from copy writer to layout designer to ad exec. His #1 rule is WHITE SPACE IS GOOD. The more the merrier. He would run full page newspaper ads with tow or three words in the center of the page and they worked!

[Korm (Korm Kormsen)]

Bill, first you must decide, what you want.
please a person named Susan, or make a more or less realistic layout.

in the second case you can count on most people in the street knowing, where they are.
that the place is called Susanville is found on the station platform and entering the town by road.
what you can not count on, is that people know, where the vet is situated.

so, a good sign would stress, veterinary and taxidermist (although the latter can be found by
the smell too)
the next prominent should be the slogan.
name of the town/village would be in small letters or absent.

or would you advertise a bar/saloon in tombstone as:
-----TOMBSTONE------
--------bar - saloon-----------
warm beer & cold steak

just asking…

[Rick_Marty]

Bill my vote would be for “A” but without the slogan.
The Name of the business is Susanville vet and tax not something else vet and tax, nothing to do with discovering what town your in.

Just an old farts opinion.

[John_Lenheiser]

Many with model RR use family members names in their business on their RR. Not sure if this was the case here, but if it works for you then go for it. Remember it’s your RR and you can do what you want.

[Cliff_Jennings]

I love the designs, and especially the punch line, that’s hilarious!!

Per Korm’s point, I’d make Susanville the same font size as vet & tax. Maybe make them 3 lines?

But I’m in favor of keeping the punch line to the end, make them get the joke!

And I agree with Jon, with the fancy lettering you don’t need further ornamentation.

Font seems mid to late 1880’s to me, which can easily slide into early 1900’s.

I think it needs a definite border, with optional corner ornamentation.

Maybe rectangular is more realistic, since they got relettered with each new tenant.

You asked for input, haha!!

[rmccown-admin (Bob McCown (Admin))]

For large signs, I use my Cricut and make a stencil, then dab on white paint. They come out looking nice and weathered.

[Korm (Korm Kormsen)]

and an example of a bad sign:

[JRad (Jon Radder)]

But, was you born under it ?

- YouTube

[Boomer_K_MOGWAI]

Bill here are some signs I used on my buildings. Some meet Jon’s points others deviate a little.

Some real signs that may prove useful examples.

[Hines (Bill)]

Tried to get “Susanville” off the sign but, truth be told, I was never going to make the space work. The possible answer? Add another business, of course, but it has to be a plausible business. It couldn’t be a blacksmith.

My thinking was that a newspaper ought to bring in news from far and wide. Trouble is, there’s no room for horses and a Pony Express station at the building. So now I’m stuck, wondering if either of these following names really makes sense.

One option is “Prairie Dog People.” I’ve heard it used to describe those ever-curious neighbors who keep a sharp eye on what everyone else is up to — the small-town busybodies. Think Gladys Kravitz from Bewitched, forever twitching the curtains. The phrase isn’t common online, but it does paint a picture, and may need explanation.

The other idea is a nod to how gossip and news used to spread — through the old party line phones. Everyone on the same circuit could overhear a conversation (whether they meant to or not). It fits the period, but I wonder if today it just sounds like politics, e.g. sticking to the Party Line.

So, do either of these ideas land, or do they just come across sideways?

[RRRR4 (Lou Luczu)]

I vote for #2.
Endless drivel to make 20 characters.

[Rick_Marty]

Bill,
I also like sign #2.
You know, to me, telephone & telegraph just flows better than what you are showing. Maybe it’s just because that’s what I grew up hearing.

[Korm (Korm Kormsen)]

i could list everything, I would like different.

but…

i’m not the person, who must see that sign, every time, when looking out of the window.

just make it to please yourself and/or your wife.

just reminding: it is your world!

[Cliff_Jennings]

They’re both super clever and look great. Nice work Bill!

[Rooster]

I personally like the font on the first one but really like the bottom line of the second one.

[Hines (Bill)]

Rick,

The folks at Susanville Telegraph and Telephone are indeed early adopters of new technologies. However, at the time, they were not sure that the telephone was not just a fad. So they put telephone second because of concerns of getting 2 parties to their respective telegraph offices at the same time to talk would involve using the telegraph to arrange times prior. Hence telegraph first.

When the partly line came in it was a no-brainer to put a news desk next to the switchboard. The Susan whom this Susanville was named after also seems to know things before others do.

Korm you didn’t list what you would do differently but reading between the lines, Herself couldn’t be convinced that adding umlauts (even in the small print) would add panache to the building. Sorry mate.

[rmccown-admin (Bob McCown (Admin))]

Speaking of signs…