Burley Ridge looks the way it does on purpose: black four-board fences, brick, a little breathing room. A neon WordArt poster on a stake fights that. It also does not get read.
The two-second test
Stand across the room. If you cannot read the what, the when, and the where, neither can someone rolling down Sulphur Well Pike.
A layout that behaves
- One thing at the top, in the fewest words: Yard sale. Lost dog. Community meeting.
- Date and time next, big.
- Place in language a neighbor uses: “Shelburne Way cul-de-sac,” not a parcel ID.
- One extra line if you must: “cash, no early birds” or “bring a chair.”
- Leave empty space. Empty space is how the rest gets seen.
Use two typefaces at most. High contrast: dark ink on light paper, or the reverse. Skip the rainbow. Print on the thickest paper the home printer will take, or I can help you send a file to a shop in Lexington.
I can make the file with you
Bring the facts. We will make a page-sized PDF you can print at home and a version for a Facebook post. If you need a stack of yard signs, we will design for the printer, not for the screen.
No clip art of cartoon houses. This neighborhood does not look like clip art.