UNited We Stand

I believe you can look at the two components of the October 5-7 Signage & Identity Symposium (sponsored by the International Sign Assn. [ISA] and the Signage Foundation for Communication Excellence) two distinct ways. In terms of content, both were excellent. Sign companies and end users definitely would have benefited from having attended the first-day sessions, and academicians and public officials could have had life-changing experiences on the second day. I doubt that any group assembled at any event in 2006 collectively boasted more knowledge of the sign industry’s legal issues than did second-day presenters.

In terms of attendance, I was very disappointed for the sign industry, because so much good information went unheard. (For the record, we should publish an adaptation of Dub Northcutt’s session on sign structures in our January issue, and ISA recorded the sessions.) The official count for the first day (Thursday) was more than 60, but as I looked around, I mostly saw other speakers and ISA board members.

Attendance on Friday seemed better, but there, one city planner could make all the difference. Maybe some seeds were planted.

But I’m hoping a completely different seed was planted. I have a dream.

Joe Rickman, a former ISA chairman of the board and current chairman of the newer Signage Foundation Inc., called and asked if I would speak with Patty Herbin at the symposium. Joe, who also operates Atlantic Sign Media (Burlington, NC), hired Patty (Performa Inc., also from Burlington) with Foundation money to attend the symposium. Her expertise is organizational behavior and, from what I could gather, her goal is to help bring together factions of the sign industry for the common good. (A former ISA president, the late Bill Deal, tried to do this in DC approximately a decade ago.)

Patty and I spoke for maybe an hour during and after the Thursday-morning breakfast. The most important questions she asked me were, what’s the biggest problem facing the sign industry, did I think a sign-industry United Nations would work, and, if so, who did I think should be on it?

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I feel as obnoxiously trite as a Miss America contestant who says she wants to work for world peace, but I firmly believe that factionalization is the sign industry’s biggest problem. “Redneck” comedian Ron White indirectly answers the second question in his routine, “I had the right to remain silent, but I didn’t have the ability.”

So no, I don’t think a sign-industry UN can work. However, I do think it’s worth another effort because there’s so much to gain.

In a nutshell, the sign industry suffers because is it’s too damn small. Money and power make things happen, and the sign industry has neither. To compound things, the industry is completely factionalized, and the infighting spills out the door, over the front porch and into the street. Otherwise, it’s plagued by simple, but perhaps equally devastating, indifference.

Here’s my pipe dream. “We,” the sign industry, offer a committee seat to one representative each from the ISA, the United States Sign Council, the National Assn. of Sign Supply Distributors, World Sign Associates and ST, Sign Business, Sign Builder Illustrated and SignCraft magazines, plus someone to represent the sign franchises. We’d need a name for the group.

Collectively, we’d develop a series of white papers that includes model sign code(s), a glossary, visual-acuity charts, cost-per-thousand comparisons of on-premise signs and other forms of media, case histories on the value of signs, etc. We would all agree that these are the official statements of the on-premise sign industry, and these would be sent to the outside world. No single group would take credit for anything. We would speak to the outside world as one voice.

Behind closed industry doors, we could continue to disparage each other. Sainthood isn’t necessary.

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No, I don’t think it would work. Human nature being what it is, remnants of the “me” decade persist, and many of us are like the basketball player who’d rather score 50 points and have his team lose than be a 6th man during a win. The Letterhead movement has in its credo, “Check your ego at the door.” Foreign concept to most. Too many entities think they’re Reggie Jackson, “the straw that stirs the drink.”

I believe you can judge people’s character by how they treat someone from whom they have nothing to gain. I wonder how many of us would be willing to significantly contribute to the on-premise sign industry and get zero official credit for it, either personally or for the organization we represent.

I don’t know if Patty came up with anything. Mostly, I saw her talking with members of the ISA Executive Committee. I don’t know if she’s done or is still gathering data. As far as I know, she might not even be acting in an official capacity. But maybe . . .