Punny Signs

In a recent post, Bob refers to a local church and a bar (two types of establishments in no short supply in our home town) that entertain the community with their signage, and he highlights how effective meaningful content can be in gaining visibility and recognition for your brand. (“Your Call Is Important To Us” (NOT!!))

I recently came across “Vince the Sign Guy” on facebook and felt compelled to share some of his signs as a very public and entertaining example for you.

Colorado native Vince Rozmiarek, a volunteer for the Indian Hills Community Center, did his first sign on April Fools in 2013, making a joke about the local police department. Him and his community were hooked, and he’s been at it ever since.

Ranked as a top ten Colorado destination, his signage has become famous far beyond the city limits of the small town of Indian Hills.

The Indian Hills Community Center facebook page has over 160k followers.

Hope you found a little inspiration in the humor!

Establish your objective, however ordinary, and challenge your thinking to be somewhat extraordinary in your path to achieve it.

Web Design: Everyone has to Start Somewhere

Recently, my blog partner did a post urging any small business owners holding out on creating a web site to take the plunge (read that story here).  He assured anyone feeling intimated that every “first try” typically lacks polish and suggested going to the Wayback Machine (a digital archive of the World Wide Web) if in need of evidence.  I thought that sounded like a super fun experiment.  So in the name of confidence building, let’s look at some big companies and their humble on-line beginnings. . . .

LEGO

Certainly not without charm (because who doesn’t love minifigures?!), but I’m guessing the individuals in charge of this design can’t look back now without cringing.

HOME DEPOT

I love a web site with a cartoon mascot that introduces himself before presenting the content of his page.  Homer from Home Depot.  Priceless.

MACY’S

Where pink, purple, and red and a dash of stars meet function.

GOOGLE

I rememberd Google always being just a logo and a search box, so I was amused to see this early weightier version. 

MCDONALD’S

More cartoons.  I’m lovin’ it.

PEPSI

This one may be my favorite.  And I’m not going to lie, I wish I had the Shockwave plug-in.

UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE

Look at all them clouds! 

AMAZON

Not too shabby, right?  I even kinda remember this design.  I knew I needed to keep looking. . . .

Here’s the gold!  This relic wasn’t available on the Wayback Machine.  Their earliest functional crawl of Amazon was 1999, and I had a feeling that an older, humbler version existed somewhere.  Thank you, versionmuseum.com.  (In amazon’s defense, this design was among the oldest within this collection with a July 1995 release date.)

FACEBOOK

Welcome to “the Facebook.”

In conclusion, I restate: everyone has to start somewhere. 

I hope one day your business grows so big that someone like me searches its origins to see the beginning of your journey.