Small Museum Solutions – The Power of Signage

2009 July 6
by Joe Hoover

Open signI see quite a bit written on social and online media for and by large museums. Not much is written from a smaller museum’s perspective with staffing of one or less. In addition to working for an organization of several hundred staff I also sit on the board of a small little tiny neighborhood historical society – the Richfield Historical Society, whose needs and goals are decidedly different than that of a large museum.

For example…

For over two years we planned and designed a roadside sign that would advertise our presence to the community and drivers by. It took that long because of city approval of changes and of course having to raise funds to help pay for the sign. It also took long due to ongoing changes in the design, partly reflective of unsureness of what to have on the sign which reflected the marketing of the organization and the brand itself.

What to put on the sign went right to the core of how we identified as organization. People were fine with the 50’s style logo and branding however, there was a lengthy debate on whether it should be the” Richfield Historical Society” or the “Richfield History Center” or simply “Museum” which is as clear as ice to the passing motorist as to what we are. Also debated was what else should be on the sign. There was an agreement that having hours on the sign would be nice, but like most small museums our hours were both infrequent and chaotic and would make the sign too busy to read quickly.

While people may plan their visits to larger museums, visits to smaller museums appear to be more driven by impulse. It was important to have a sign that identified quickly who we were and and when they could come.

However, during the two years while we planned and planned our new sign we had almost nothing identifying our site. We were losing customers as the time passed.

Enter Norm

 Norm's simple but effective signs

Norm's simple but effective signs

Norm was another board member. He was not a good designer, nor did he have any thoughts (or care) as to what branding was about. But he did have the common sense to understand that without signage not many folks will know who or where you are.

While the committee met and raised funds for a new sign and decided what to put on it, Norm quietly put up his own signage identifying the building as well as a simple sign letting the world (at least those driving by) know when we were open By hanging an open sign, we significantly increased our daily traffic with folks walking in often saying “I always drove by and wondered what you guys were, I am so glad you are open”.

A highly visible open sign. So simple and yet often over-looked at small museums.

With that knowledge I went to task to redesign (yet again) our organizations roadside sign. This time eliminating any mention of hours or other information and instead listing our web site where people can look up the hours (whatever they happened to be at the time) along with other information but however we including space for a large “OPEN” sign to capture the impulse intellectual. The resulting sign built by Mathey Sign was a success.

Main Sign showing URL

Main Sign showing URL

Main Sign showing Open sign

Main Sign showing Open sign

There is a smaller sign listing the Richfield Historical Society’s web site which unfolds to become the OPEN sign. Once in place this improvement has greatly increased the traffic and exposure of the Richfield Historical Society. The final changes to the sign included the use of the name of the building “Richfield History Center” rather than the “Richfield Historical Society” in an effort to promote the place not the organization running it. It also (after some debate) included “& Museum” which was short hand for the other building on the site the Bartholomew House. Museum was added to help the site get instant recognition and understanding from drivers passing quickly by that “History Center” may not have. In the same way that “Spa” or “Health Club” may mean many things to different people but when you say “Spa & Brothel” the term is, well, rather crystal clear. (yes, yes… I know its risqué but its the only example I could think of at the time of writing this post).

Norm sadly passed away not much longer after putting up his simple hand made signs which were very effective in helping the organization. In spite of their crudeness and lack of brand savvy I find it hard to remove them and probably will keep them around for a while, …one of the privileges of volunteering at a small museum.

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