From the Pavement: Please use the front door

In praise of handwritten signs, improvised notices and the small bits of communication that remind you there is an actual person behind the business.

There is a particular sort of sign that only really exists in independent shops.

BACK IN 10 MINUTES.

PLEASE KNOCK – BELL NOT WORKING.

CASH ONLY TODAY, SORRY.

DOG ASLEEP BEHIND DOOR.

And, a personal favourite:

PLEASE USE THE FRONT DOOR.

Usually written in marker pen. Sometimes laminated. Occasionally attached with a quantity of Sellotape that suggests the arrangement was intended to be temporary several years ago. From a branding point of view, none of this should really work.

The typeface is wrong. There is no approved tone of voice. The paper doesn't match anything. The apostrophe may be questionable. Nobody has checked the clear space around the logo.

And yet, quite often, it does.

Signs of life

Walk along almost any high street and you can tell quite a lot about a business before going inside. There are the permanent things: fascia, paintwork, awning, window display, lighting.And then there is another layer.

A vase of flowers put outside in the morning. Today's cake written on a blackboard. A postcard advertising somebody else's exhibition. A water bowl for the dog. Opening hours amended with a scrap of paper because somebody needs to leave early on Thursday. These are not really part of the brand identity. But they are very much part of the identity of the place.

They tell you that somebody arrived this morning, unlocked the door, looked around and made a few decisions. The business is being tended to.

A little imperfection

Businesses spend a great deal of time trying to appear professional. Understandably so. But somewhere along the way, professional became rather closely associated with polished. And polished, particularly online, has become remarkably easy to manufacture.

Templates are better. Websites are slicker. Photography is cleaner. AI can produce perfectly competent copy before the kettle has boiled. As everything becomes easier to smooth out, the unsmoothed bits become more interesting.

A handwritten sign carries information that extends beyond the words written on it.

There is a person here.

They noticed something.

They thought you ought to know.

This doesn't mean every business should abandon its identity and reach for a marker pen. Bad signage can still be bad signage.
A note saying CARD MACHINE BROKEN AGAIN is unlikely to become more charming on the fourth consecutive visit.

But there is a difference between carelessness and evidence of a human hand. The latter can be surprisingly reassuring.

The unofficial identity

Some of the most memorable parts of a business are things nobody thought to put in the brand guidelines.

The way purchases are wrapped.

What gets written on the receipt.

The chair kept near the counter for a regular customer.

The biscuit that comes with the coffee.

The notice in the window.

The fact that somebody always puts the plants outside before opening.

None is especially significant on its own. Together they begin to tell you what sort of place this is.

Larger businesses work very hard to manufacture these kinds of details. They create service principles, brand behaviours and carefully designed moments of surprise and delight.

Independents often arrive at them rather differently.

Somebody simply thinks: that would be nice.

And does it.

Don't design all the life out of it

There is a temptation, particularly when improving a business, to tidy everything.

New identity. New website. Matching templates. Proper signs. Consistent packaging. A system for everything.

Much of that is useful.

But perhaps the aim shouldn't be to eliminate every irregularity.

A good identity gives a business enough structure to be recognisable without making it afraid of itself.

There should still be room for the shopkeeper to tape a note to the window because the delivery is late.

Room to write LAST TWO on a card.

Room to recommend the café three doors down.

Room for the things that weren't included in the brand presentation.

Because sometimes the least designed thing in the window tells you the most about the business behind it.

FROM THE PAVEMENT

Look past the fascia.

The little improvised details – notices, recommendations, flowers, blackboards, things left by the till – often tell you more about a business than the expensive bits.

Good branding should make a place more itself.

Not design the life out of it.