Signs, signs, everywhere signs...
It seems to me that there's some parallels to be found today between the modern movie industry and political demonstration as practiced in the US. Sure, once or twice a year there's a big blockbuster, that everyone sees or hears about. It's well organized and executed, and gets it's message across. However, most of them are shoddy things, with poor production values and little heart.
Today, I took a few minutes of a fine early spring day to take a stroll through my Boston suburb to the local US Post Office...
As an aside, I want to personally thank the guy who was sitting on a bench up on his second story balcony, noodling about on an acoustic guitar. That is what this season is about, gosh darn it!
... And, along the way, at a major intersection, there were a bunch of demonstrators. The least impressive gathering of people with a political message I've seen since the Geriatric Men's Cheese Filibuster of '89. It wasn't that there weren't enough people, or that they had no enthusiasm for their gathering. It was the signs.
If there's any truth to the statement, "Clothes make the man", then it is doubly true that the sign makes the demonstrator. It must be eye-catching. It's physical construction must be able to put up with the local conditions of precipitation or wind. It must be legible from a distance of more than ten feet. All in all, it must look like you spent more than five minutes that morning with a medium-tip ball point pen scribbling on poster board.
The whole point of demonstrating is to get noticed, to make folks think that you feel passionately enough about the subject to go out and act upon it. In order to do that, the demonstrator must take a little time and pride in their work. If your sign cannot be read in a glance from across the street, it isn't worth the effort to lift it. Your sign's major audiences are either drivers (who will see it from a bit of a distance, and need to be able to read it while not wrapping their car around a lamppost) or TV cameras (who will shrink it down and give it 10 seconds on the air). Either way, bright colors, high contrast, and fat letters are in order. Penmanship counts. If you cannot use large markers or paints neatly, think about using stencils.
Short snappy slogans and simple iconography is what you need. If your sign can be classified as a major literary work, or otherwise has more verbiage than an average mailing address, the time that it will take to read it will exceed the average attention span of the Average American Shlub, and be ignored. If it's imagery in any way needs to be "interpreted", you will get tired arms for nothing.
Please remember that you are trying to impress your viewers. Size does matter. If you intend to make the passers-by think you really care, you won't do it by waving a flag smaller than the hand that waves it. If your sign isn't big enough to make you tired by the end of the day, people will think you don't care. Similarly, the viewers want quality workmanship, so your sign must be able to stand up to waving in the prevailing breeze for a couple hours without degrading into a folded, spindled, mutilated, and otherwise tattered mess.
In the end, a shoddy sign is an indication that your thought is similarly shoddy. You're waving your heart and pride on that placard, folks. What does your heart and pride look like?
Today, I took a few minutes of a fine early spring day to take a stroll through my Boston suburb to the local US Post Office...
As an aside, I want to personally thank the guy who was sitting on a bench up on his second story balcony, noodling about on an acoustic guitar. That is what this season is about, gosh darn it!
... And, along the way, at a major intersection, there were a bunch of demonstrators. The least impressive gathering of people with a political message I've seen since the Geriatric Men's Cheese Filibuster of '89. It wasn't that there weren't enough people, or that they had no enthusiasm for their gathering. It was the signs.
If there's any truth to the statement, "Clothes make the man", then it is doubly true that the sign makes the demonstrator. It must be eye-catching. It's physical construction must be able to put up with the local conditions of precipitation or wind. It must be legible from a distance of more than ten feet. All in all, it must look like you spent more than five minutes that morning with a medium-tip ball point pen scribbling on poster board.
The whole point of demonstrating is to get noticed, to make folks think that you feel passionately enough about the subject to go out and act upon it. In order to do that, the demonstrator must take a little time and pride in their work. If your sign cannot be read in a glance from across the street, it isn't worth the effort to lift it. Your sign's major audiences are either drivers (who will see it from a bit of a distance, and need to be able to read it while not wrapping their car around a lamppost) or TV cameras (who will shrink it down and give it 10 seconds on the air). Either way, bright colors, high contrast, and fat letters are in order. Penmanship counts. If you cannot use large markers or paints neatly, think about using stencils.
Short snappy slogans and simple iconography is what you need. If your sign can be classified as a major literary work, or otherwise has more verbiage than an average mailing address, the time that it will take to read it will exceed the average attention span of the Average American Shlub, and be ignored. If it's imagery in any way needs to be "interpreted", you will get tired arms for nothing.
Please remember that you are trying to impress your viewers. Size does matter. If you intend to make the passers-by think you really care, you won't do it by waving a flag smaller than the hand that waves it. If your sign isn't big enough to make you tired by the end of the day, people will think you don't care. Similarly, the viewers want quality workmanship, so your sign must be able to stand up to waving in the prevailing breeze for a couple hours without degrading into a folded, spindled, mutilated, and otherwise tattered mess.
In the end, a shoddy sign is an indication that your thought is similarly shoddy. You're waving your heart and pride on that placard, folks. What does your heart and pride look like?