Nailed It! — Sign Fails to Make you Laugh

By Toni McQuilken

The following post was originally published by Wide-format Impressions. To read more of their content, subscribe to their newsletter, Wide-Format Impressions.

So, I have a confession to make. My guilty pleasure is browsing the internet for funny compilations of memes and fails, in particular sign fails. They always provoke a mix of either laughing or crying as I think about not only the designer who created them, but also the poor print shops that have to look at the photos and realize they didn’t catch the issues either.

Granted, at the end of the day, it’s a printer’s job to make the client happy, and these fails aren’t really on the printers producing and installing them — after all, you can only print what your clients give you and sign off on. And with how busy it can get trying to just get jobs out the door, or the labor challenges meaning you might have less experienced installers, or even just not having a policy in place that double checks for these sorts of things to make sure there aren’t any unintended messages is likely low on the priority list.

But that doesn’t change the fact that there are some terrible signs out there that, rather than pull people into a business, just serve to make them into a joke. And that’s not good for anyone’s business. This is a prime example of why it might pay huge dividends to have an actual designer on your staff whose only job is to review client files not just for trapping issues or color matching, but also to make sure they say what the brand thinks they do.

So, without further ado, I present some of the sign fails that have made me laugh and cry in equal measure. Feel free to send in your own favorite sign fails and I might just use them in a future roundup of some of the best!

When installing this food advertisement, did no one comment on the fact that he’s literally eating out of the permanently-placed trash can? Tasty! | Credit: whidbeynice

As a coffee lover, I object to this determination. Starbucks is absolutely better than some of the coffee I have gotten at various convention centers around the country. | Credit: whidbeynice

If the revolution comes, we’ll all be regretting not having gotten more practice in. | Credit: whidbeynice

Short. To the point. Unimpressive. Underwhelming. Perhaps they’re trying to compensate for something. | Credit: whidbeynice

Seriously, did no one on the installation team take a step back and call the client to ask if this is really what they were intending? | Credit: whidbeynice

I mean, if you’re hard, then you’re hard. Can’t argue with that. | Credit: Vengedpotty

Don’t these funnel cakes look delicious? Doesn’t this sign make you want to rush over and purchase a giant heaping pile of... dough? | Credit: 187TROOPER