Good Sign Design Co

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Good Sign Design Co We're a small design agency serving physical spaces and small spaces.

From retail and restaurants to municipalities and non profits, we're an on-demand agency with straight-forward pricing and service.

As a brand designer and retail store owner I’ve personally dealt with negative reviews and irate customers. It bound to ...
10/15/2026

As a brand designer and retail store owner I’ve personally dealt with negative reviews and irate customers. It bound to happen. Having a plan for what to do when it does is important to keep your brand protected. Here’s a few thoughts on what we do at Needle & Grain and what you can do for your brick and mortar.

About once a week somebody comes into Needle & Grain looking for quilt supplies. We stopped carrying those a while ago (...
10/01/2026

About once a week somebody comes into Needle & Grain looking for quilt supplies. We stopped carrying those a while ago (a story for another day). We’ve even updated our listings but people still ask!

It’s a reminder to me that a lot of folks go by what Google or Apple Maps says and never double-check. When the listing is right, they walk in happy. When it’s off, they walk in disappointed. First impressions start online.

When it comes to branding that’s 2 things we can keep in mind.

1. If you haven’t looked at yours in a while, it’s worth a few minutes to make sure it’s updated or even created! Check this monthly.

2. Draft a plan for how you handle customer interactions when your listings lead folks astray. For us, most of our guests come expecting quilts, but still leave with a few things. We make their trip worth it with a good apology, discounts or just a polite chat.

Do you remember those hoverboards that showed up almost out of nowhere in 2015? Two-wheeled balance toys that whizzed ar...
09/21/2026

Do you remember those hoverboards that showed up almost out of nowhere in 2015? Two-wheeled balance toys that whizzed around like...well, a hoverboard. The trend was so hot, they were on fire, quite literally.
 
If I were to ask you which brand made those boards you’d likely be at a loss. Brands with names that were a series of random consonants popped up and disappeared as soon as their product started getting blacklisted for its flammability.
 
The reason you never saw a strong brand like LG or Honda take on that product is because they didn’t want want to attach their trusted name onto an untrustworthy product. Advertising executive and behavioral scientist Rory Sutherland notes, “in the absence of recognizable brands, people struggle to evaluate a product category at all.” When we shop we start with who we trust first. Anything else feels scary, like a bet we are hesitant to take.
 
You’re attaching your good name to every product or service you provide. You’ve built trust with your customers, so you want to make sure you continue that relationship by standing behind everything you offer. Might seem obvious, but it’s a huge part of successful branding.

When I was just a budding junior designer, my directors were always telling me to delete, delete, delete. I was always a...
09/15/2026

When I was just a budding junior designer, my directors were always telling me to delete, delete, delete. I was always adding too much flare and it was distracting away from the message. You might be like baby Bryson and want to share every detail of your message in hopes it gets the most attention. And like the noisy AI ads of today, it falls flat on our feeds. Too much noise gets overlooked.

Here’s an example of the alternative: Next door to our store is one of the oldest and most successful retail shops in town. A crooked sign on the front door informs customers: “Stuff for Sale Here.” When I asked Heather, one of the owners ,about it she laughed and said it summed up their mission so well they had to hang it up. What’s funny is that it’s clear what they do, and they don’t beat around the bush. They sell stuff and you should come inside and check it out. And lots and lots of people do!

Being clear before we’re clever with our messaging is the best way to communicate, especially if you’re new to marketing or owning a business.

09/11/2026

Didn’t care much for soccer until a friend shared his love of it with me.

Didn’t care for that band until my brother shared why he loved it with me.

Watching someone love something is a magnetic force that small business see everyday. Don’t forget your biggest fans create more of your biggest fans!

This is one of my most favorite signs in my hometown. It’s located behind an old federal building that’s now used mostly...
09/10/2026

This is one of my most favorite signs in my hometown. It’s located behind an old federal building that’s now used mostly as a bank.

It uses strong language but is dressed up with an authority that is not jarring.

It’s polite, but firm.

Oftentimes we can address frictions in our stores and restaurants with paper signs and premade decals like: “Do not enter” “smile you’re on camera” “no soliciting” and create an entirely new friction for your customers without even realizing it.

Signs set the tone in your space. Almost like traffic lights, we can read them without even noticing it. So it’s important that they are on brand, they are kind and they communicate clearly. Polite, but firm.

When you’re looking to solve a problem with a sign do this:
1. Ask: Can this problem be first solved without a sign?
2. Double check with someone else if this can be solved without a sign.
3. If not, Can this be solved with a sign that is considerate and intentional?
4. Is the sign keeping within our brand standards of language, fonts and colors?

Making sure you communicate clearly and on brand at every touch point is a part of your sensory brand experience in your brick and mortar.

09/02/2026

Let's talk about front doors! It's the secret to great first impressions.

08/26/2026

Here’s three things I wish I knew as a brand designer before building a retail store with my wife.

1.You spend hours each week making sure your shelves and floors are clean, inventory is stocked and cash drawers are counted. You need to spend just as much time making sure your online store is equally cared for. Your Google listing, web store and more can’t go ignored.

2. Make a plan for your pricing. Are you gonna end everything in .99 or .49? What about whole numbers instead? Making a consistent effort to keep your pricing the same for everything you sell is a small signal to customers that you care about the details.

3. Add personal touch points. Write notes next to favorite items and tell folks why you love it. Tag items with employee picks, make a shelf for best selling books. Differentiate from the big boxes by curating and building relationships through what you sell.

08/25/2026

What burning questions do you have about your brick and mortar business? Let’s get into it! our store 👉Needle & Grain

When I founded this business back in 2016, I did it to get out of a cubicle life that was not longer fulfilling. Making ...
06/03/2026

When I founded this business back in 2016, I did it to get out of a cubicle life that was not longer fulfilling. Making signs were a perfect marriage of working with my hands and the world of design I lived in every day.

Today, signs are still a part of our heritage, but the reality is, it makes up less than half of our business. Our day-to-day is spent fielding emails of local businesses owners, churches, cities and non-profits with a broad range of creative needs.

"Can you help me start my new business?"
"How fast can you get me a banner for our event?"
"Do you do brochures for my fundraiser?"
"Can you help me rebrand my restaurant?"
"Can you build a new museum exhibit?"

The answer is always yes. We're always open, as we say.

While a name change would, in truth, make a lot of sense, frankly we like the name and I am too cheap to change it!

As we stretch and grow from one person to three and back to two it's become clear to me as a good designer but terrible business leader, I need to lay some firm foundations and work towards a true agency!

Today we're launching a new Good Sign Design Co Partnership Model.

Current clients, no worries, nothing is changing! Im just adding a new opportunity to help us both create dependable, proactive and polished creative things together.

I hope you take some time to check our our new website and see what our partnerships are all about.

If you're curious about learning more, call me, text me send me a letter. I'm here for you!

https://goodsigndesignco.com/partnership

Address

802 South Main Street
Columbia, TN
38401

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 4pm
Tuesday 9am - 4pm
Wednesday 9am - 4pm
Thursday 9am - 4pm
Friday 9am - 12pm

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