Barking Pixel provides design compositions to clients, to show what their new signs will look like in comparison to their old ones.
Concerning trends in signage and design
Over the last 10 years or so, we have noticed a steep trend in mostly smaller sign shops and design studios overusing stock art elements, while offering “branding” or “logo creation” as part of their services alongside signage applications. This partially has to do with how graphic assets are so easily available online through websites such as FreePik, iStock, or Unsplash, and are now being used exclusively with no original creation to meet clients’ marketing objectives.
This is a dangerous trend—as well as a sign of the times, where budgets are limited—but it is also a major disservice to clients’ business objectives when not using professional design and marketing services to create original art for signage or logomarks, or at a minimum, modifying the found stock art. For example, a real estate agent or homebuilder will realize the same house roof graphic has been used for another business just down the street, which has happened on multiple occasions. Further, artificial intelligence (AI) has opened up an entirely new set of challenges (or perhaps 
possibilities, depending on how you look at it).
As a design studio, we do occasionally rely on stock resources for idea-gathering or to help formulate concepts, but we would never resort to using stock art off-the-shelf to call our own or hand off as new to a client. In many cases, stock resources being used verbatim to cater to the need of a quick, profitable sale and production often results in lackluster projects, and we have seen and had many new clients come to us to fix these problems.
This is not to say all sign shops operate this way. Obviously, some larger shops within larger cities have graphic designers and marketers on staff, who draft detailed, comprehensive options for their clients’ signage needs. What tends to set us apart—and the reason why clients end up working with us to develop new signage or storefront designs—is we go the extra mile to fine-tune important subtle design details or concepts, such as colour decisions, typography, and layout element ratios; offer marketing and design rationale of the executions; and often assist with the final finessing of the written messaging.
After researching many shops and their public postings over the years, either via their website, Facebook, or Instagram, it now seems prevalent for small and mid-sized shops to churn out as much as they can, as quickly as they can. We hope this will change.
In awe of the possibilities
Today’s sign industry has so much to offer its clients, and our word of advice would be to encourage design companies to build signage into their business offerings. It never ceases to amaze us just how much potential there is now when it comes to the various types of creative signage solutions and materials that exist today, compared to even 20 years ago. Although we are a small design studio, and many of our jobs are relatively simple in nature, our clients are always surprised and very grateful for the extra detail and effort we put into the projects—mainly due to our graphic design experience, knowledge, and capabilities. We make our projects feel unique, personal, and polished.
As our business continues to grow, we will keep offering signage solutions as part of our core services. Working together effectively with our suppliers, and often as the silent salesperson on their behalf to effectively secure new sign projects, is a great dynamic that benefits each other’s businesses.
Clinton Clarke is the co-owner and operator of Barking Pixel Design, a boutique design communications studio in Peterborough, Ont. The company works with various local sign shops to serve clients in the Peterborough and the Kawarthas region.
