2017 is the year of the projecting sign

On-premise signage is the most powerful marketing tool a brick-and-mortar business has at its disposal. While downtown Iowa City enjoys best-in-state pedestrian traffic, has been named “Iowa’s most walkable city” and is a top five “College Town for Students Without Cars,” a majority of the signage downtown, according to two separate studies conducted by retail and signage experts, is misplaced and failing to fully capitalize on this robust pedestrian traffic.

The studies point out, generally, that downtown signage is underperforming in the following three areas:

1. Most of the signs are placed flush to the face of the building and only impactful when viewed from the street in a vehicle, or worse yet, all the way across the street. 
2. Lacking in creativity and uniqueness. Poor and/or misrepresentation of the nature of the business and the essence of its brand identity.
3. Inappropriate sign scale in relation to the size of the building facade.

This hasn’t always been the case. If you were to look back at images of downtown from the early-mid 20th century, those business owners had it right. Beautiful, handcrafted signs hung out perpendicular to the buildings. Dentist office signs in the shape of molars, rotating red-white-blue barber shop poles and the warm glow of neon letters adorned many buildings. Somewhere along the way this all changed. As vehicular traffic became more prominent, business owners shifted their signage practices accordingly and the art of grabbing the attention of walker-by fell to the wayside.

But change is afoot as downtown Iowa City is about to get an infusion of new and creative storefront signs. This will be made possible by the Downtown District’s participation in the American Sign Museum’s “CoSign” program, recent changes to the city’s sign code, financial support from the city and a generous sponsorship of the program from MidWestOne Bank. The focus of the CoSign program will be on creating unique and impactful signs that project out from the building and are oriented toward pedestrians.

The American Sign Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation founded in 1999 by Tod Swormstedt, former editor of Signs of the Times magazine. Its mission is, “To celebrate the rich history of American signage through preservation and education.” The museum is the premier resource for preserving historic signs and promoting the contributions the sign industry makes to commerce, culture and the American landscape.

In 2011, the American Sign Museum launched its first round of CoSign in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati. Simply put, CoSign matches local artists and designers with downtown brick-and-mortar businesses and professional sign fabricators to create a critical mass of new signage. This new signage will be installed and unveiled in August in conjunction with MidWestOne Bank’s “Rock the Chalk” event. The new creative signage will enhance the aesthetic and mood of downtown and add to our unique sense of place. This all will equate to more repeat customers at the stores, word-of-mouth marketing and economic vitality. On top of that, it will be a fun opportunity for our local artists and designers to collaborate with our small-business owners.

The CoSign program will kick-off in downtown Iowa City in late March.

Interested in getting involved and designing a sign for one of your favorite downtown businesses? Contact Nate Kaeding at nate@downtowniowacity.com.

Nate Kaeding is the Iowa City Downtown District's retail development coordinator.