Monday, May 7, 2012

Having Your Own Sale Part 2: Sign Design

I’m breaking up my discussion of advertising into three days: two days on signs and one day on Craigslist. Today, I will be discussing sign design, or “how to make a sign that won’t make me crash trying to read it.” 

It seems very few garage sale holders put any thought into their sign design. Some of the signs I see are ridiculous: pencil on cardboard, 8.5”x11” sheets, signs listing everything the seller is trying to get rid of, and worse. You can't read these signs, especially when you're driving by quickly.  

People fail to understand that simplicity is key for garage sale signs: you want something that can be seen, from a distance, at a high speed. The best garage sale signs have to words: “YARD” and “SALE” in all caps with a single, bold arrow. Don’t write garage (it has more letters so they must be smaller to fit on the page) and don’t write estate because it has a different connotation (ie, those terrible sales run by companies). Don’t try to be clever and call your sale a “vintage sale” or a “treasure sale;” you’re just being dumb if you do that. 

You want the fewest characters on your sign as possible to maximize character size, hence writing yard instead of garage. Don’t try to write what items you have because people won’t be able to read it (if anything, you scare them off because you don't list what they're looking for) and most people don’t care anyway. Don’t bother writing your address either. Again, no one can read it and most people won’t know the area well enough to find your house based on the address anyway. My rule is that if there’s an address and no arrow, forget the sale. I’ve been garage saling for almost six years now and there are still only a few streets in the subdivisions I know by name. 

Sign color is important as well. You want something that people can see from a long distance; fluorescent paper is perfect for this. If you can’t use fluorescent paper, use white paper. Cardboard is too dark to read most text, especially at a distance. Contrast is key. 

I get my signs printed at Kinko’s or a similar copy place. I create a landscape-oriented Microsoft Word document that only reads “YARD SALE” in a bold, sans-serif font; I increase the font size until each word fits on its own page. I do not include an arrow on this sheet. I then print the signs on fluorescent green cardstock and tape the signs’ backs to manila folders cut to size for additional stiffness (allowing me to reuse the signs – I’ve used the same signs at least seven times now). 
 A mock-up of the signs I use; the black line indicates the top of the “SALE” sheet. Note how part of the “SALE” sheet overlaps part of the “YARD” sheet to prevent excess space between the words. Also note the extra space below "SALE" so I can later add an arrow.

I print the arrows on separate sheets so I can assemble the signs later on; this way I do not make the mistake of having too many signs pointing to the left or too many pointing to the right. I simply make large, bold arrows in Microsoft PowerPoint (several to a sheet) and print them on the same type of paper I use for the signs. Be sure to use arrows with large heads that a person can quickly read. 
A good arrow.  Note how the direction can be read even from a distance.
A bad arrow.  It is difficult to read the direction from a distance.

The arrows can be taped directly to your sign below the word sale. Use packing tape because it is strong and clear.

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