It’s Spring and along with the birds chirping, the grass growing, and the baseball playing, Spring brings spring cleaning. Every saturday during the springtime months around my neighborhood means yard sales.

This weekend, I spotted a very intriguing yard sale sign. It was made of neon yellow posterboard, and contained the words, “Yard Sale, next right”. With it’s bright-colored background and concise messaging, it really couldn’t get any better right?

Wrong.

This sign could have been a lot better with one change: Don’t write the words in ball point pen. That’s right, the entire sign was written in ball point pen and I was probably the only person that took the time to read it. I was the only person to read it because I was probably the only person that actually pulled off the side of the road, got out of my car and walked up the sign. (Yes, it was that bad.)

So what can a yard sale sign teach us about advertising?

It teaches us that just because someone may have the tools, it doesn’t mean they have the skills. Frequently, clients confuse the ability to tactically produce a file with the ability to concept the creative. I have heard many times, “I will just produce the mailer myself on my computer and have Kinkos print them up.”

This is one of the biggest problems graphic designers have faced since the dawn of personal computing. People frequently confuse the ability to produce with the
ability to create.

So the next time you are tempted to use the ball point pen, hire someone with a thick black permanent marker.

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