Some Bad Signs

Wisconsin... land of bad signs? The first three shown here were all in one small area near Madison:


This was the first one I noticed: the extra-large initial letters, arranged vertically (almost always a bad idea); the relatively tiny letters that complete the words; the tiny church name. The circle outline inside a square box!


This flyer, posted inside window, uses every cheap trick in a 1990-era wanna-be designer's bag of tricks. The gradation (representing the sun?), the zigzaggy tree, the tacky Delphin font running over the varying color background with questionable readability.


The last Madison sign was not quite as bad as the other two, but it's not good. Why is ALL FAITHS off center? Why is the ampersand so big, when it's probably the least important thing on the sign? (And who broke the right end off?)

The final bad sign is on a truck, which wasn't a horrible design originally, but has been repainted over time by someone who is not a sign painter. In fact, it looks like it may have been painted by using the outlines created with an overhead projector:


Especially check out the letters in "Greenhouses Inc." Funky!