Monday, 08 Jun 2015 10:12 GMT

Struggles for Sign-makers

David Catanach, director of the British Sign and Graphics Association, takes a sideways look at the sign and graphics industry, discussing the struggles sign-makers can encounter

Living in the real world

By the time you read this, the general election would be all over and even more hopefully, it would have sorted itself out so that we know who is going to be in power for the next five years and who will be improving/destroying/making no change (delete as necessary) to our lives. A big sigh of relief and the TV, radio, and papers will find something else to spout on about while we can all get back to our day jobs and make a living.

Between now and 2020 when it all starts again, we all have to go with whatever flow is coming our way whether you like it or not. That is democracy for you or come to think of it, that is any government, dictatorship or any other form of someone ruling over your lives.

You will be pleased to know that I do not do politics or politicians so let’s talk about something else and avoid that nest of vipers—although as any politician will try to tell you, everything is politics. Well they would say that would they not? 

A sixth sense

Most children are taught that the human body has five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. But many neurologists identify nine or more senses, and some list as many as 21.

You can sense hot and cold without actually seeing, smelling or touching something and then there is the sense of pressure, atmospheric not dead-lines. There are also a variety of senses which analyse information that originates from within the body such as balance, hunger, and thirst. Sat amongst all this is also another type of sense called proprioception, which is the brain’s knowledge of relative positions of body parts. This is the sense that is actually tested by walk-the-line or finger-to-nose sobriety tests—just do not try to tell the police that as you are being tested because it is a bit of a tricky word to pronounce correctly and your efforts may add to your problems.

But the one sense that really fascinates me, and is extremely relevant to the sign industry, is the sense of being able to guess what the other person is thinking simply from being asked to ‘make me a sign’”


But the one sense that really fascinates me, and is extremely relevant to the sign industry, is the sense of being able to guess what the other person is thinking simply from being asked to ‘make me a sign’. You may be lucky enough to be given some clues such as colours or message but there are far few things being worse than spending a lot of time coming up with ideas only for the client to say ‘no, that’s not what they wanted’. That is when your sense of frustration pipes up.

When you finally do present a drawing or idea that is acceptable, the sense of decency (or rather lack of it) kicks in for your client as they take all the hard work you have done round to three or four different sign companies for quotes based on your work. Enter the sense of betrayal. We have all seen it happen in one way shape or form and may be guilty of having done a similar thing ourselves at some time or another but it can still irk.

I once stood in the buying office of a large sign company where someone had two telephones on the go at the same time and was blatantly screwing the price down on some sheet material by telling one phone what the other phone had just quoted and back and forth until someone was prepared to go no further. It was not a large order and to me, the buyer had left his sense of integrity at home or, as more like because he was known to do this all the time, had had it surgically removed.





What a great way to go I can imagine some people would say, just think of the money being saved. But just for one moment put yourself in the shoes of the losing telephone bidder. Some might say that business is business and dog eat dog and that they deserved what they got i.e. no sheet material order but can you really build a business and trade as if all that matters is the lowest price possible?

We are talking about the sign and graphics industry, not high street pile ‘em high sell ‘em cheap. There is a moral to this anecdote and that is having got the cheapest price, the buyer obtained the cheapest material which failed resulting in the job having to be done again at the sign company’s cost and with hardly any margin in the job because they went as cheap as possible—well you get the picture and can make your own mind up, mine is a sense of karma but that is me.

Competitive market

There were recently a few businesses in the sign industry that are now no more as, so it seems, they could not cope with not making a decent margin for their whole business in an extremely competitive environment and yet there are companies out there who have not won every order because their price was too high but they are still in business and doing very well thank you. So it can not always be about price but what is it that beats the lowest price? I suggest it is the sense of trust between two people, one who is going to deliver a product or service that is commensurate with the expectation level of the other.

I am fully aware that running a business is not exactly a walk in the park and that if you are not getting orders through the door and back out through the workshop or factory, then the temptation to cut prices becomes a reality”


I am fully aware that running a business is not exactly a walk in the park and that if you are not getting orders through the door and back out through the workshop or factory, then the temptation to cut prices becomes a reality as a sense of panic begins to set in. Everyone I have spoken to on this subject has said that cutting prices to the bone is the start of a slippery slope that gets very steep the further you go and makes it less likely for you to get off that slope except in a spectacular fashion.

Yet we still do it—look for the cheapest that is. I found myself trawling the internet for some old fashioned Edison style light bulbs the other day and the prices for the same bulb by the same manufacturer ranged from £5 a bulb to £13 over various internet sites. Yes I know it is a light bulb for a fiver and I may have more money than sense but this is something I would not be buying every day and it is, in one way, a commodity item that is widely available. Plus I was also exercising my own principles of paying a bit extra for something a bit different from the usual 60 watt light bulb. It is what I wanted—but just not at £13 a pop so I looked around.

But a commodity item is different from a bespoke one which brings me back to where we started and the designing of a sign based on the flimsiest of suggestion from your client and getting an order at a price that is right for both of you. If it is a bespoke item, simply leave price out of the equation until the very end when you have received the client’s confirmation that they want what only you can provide.

If they want it that bad, they will pay the price for it. If the price is out of their budget or comfort zone (which is something you really need to establish first off if possible before doing any work), because you started at the very top of the specification, you can strip some features out and still leave room for a sign that does the job and leaves you with a decent margin. This scenario will be exactly the opposite if you started at the lowest specification and price as it is far easier to down-spec than up-sell. Those of you who have spent three or more hours in a car dealers buying a brand new car will know exactly what I mean.


When orders are slow, there is temptation to cut prices but this can be a slippery slope that is hard to get off



And if your client insists on ‘having a think about it’, say that is fine but if you do not get the order, there will be a charge for your work. Believe me the number of times I have seen that work in favour of getting the order and remember, those designs are most probably your copyright and intellectual property so they are yours until you sell them off. If they are going to run off somewhere else for a price on a bespoke item, I will wager you were never going to get the order in the first place.

In a sense, what you are doing is showing your client your sense of trust-worthiness and principles that I suspect we would all like to receive in return in our daily dealings with people. Which is only common sense (and which is why I do not do politics or politicians).



Public Notice:

  • Giving a sign-maker a detailed specification will save time in the long-run
  • Many sign companies are no more because of the competitive environment
  • Cutting prices is the start of a slippery slope
  • Establish whether the price is right before starting any work


The British Sign and Graphics Association (BSGA) history dates back more than 70 years when a group of leading sign-makers
formed the Master sign-makers Association (MSMA) with the aim of promoting the sign industry and defending its interests.
For more information on the issues discussed in this article visit www.bsga.co.uk or Tel: 0845 338 3016



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