I have to share with everyone my new favorite phrase this off season: “Work in progress.” And it’s perfect for what we’ll be talking about this month!

So, what exactly is “work in progress?” Simply, it’s a continuation of an established and proven piece of work towards its conclusion. It’s constantly evolving, and at the same time, a great call to action.

And so it goes with all of your garden center’s signage efforts, from finding your voice back in January’s Today’s Garden Center issue to signs and visual merchandising in February’s issue, signage will always be a work in progress.

I wouldn’t be mentioning this concept if I didn’t have a reason, and this month’s focus on sign categories and guidelines illustrates it perfectly. Let me begin by saying that when it comes to sign categories, you have your universal categories, and then you will have those sign categories unique to your garden center complete with its own voice and message.

But before I get too far ahead of myself, let’s break down what exactly a sign category is. We are all on the same page when it comes to what a category is, right? Simply put, a category is a general class of ideas, or things that mark divisions within a conceptual scheme.

The conceptual scheme in this case would be your garden center’s signage. Your job is to nail down the general classes of that conceptual scheme. In other words, what are the categories of signs you identify throughout your nursery?

A Fun Project

Don’t know what your categories are? Never have even thought to go down that road? Actually headed down that road and veered off because of the nasty signage pile-up? Don’t worry. Here’s a great project that some of your staff could really enjoy during these last few weeks of winter.

Go forth and collect: gather as much signage as you can and just throw it on the center of the table. Hint: Make sure someone has gone to get some donuts and coffee because this could be a long meeting.

Start by picking one and asking: “What is its most basic message?” For example, you pick a sign that reads: “5 Great Tips for Planting in July.” Its most basic message is education and/or information. That’s your category!

Some things to keep in mind during this exercise: Don’t rush through this and haphazardly assign categories just for the sake of assigning categories. Take some time and think it through. Do not seek perfection on the first pass. Your category list may be longer than you expected. That’s OK! Go through the list again and see where you can consolidate or combine categories like ‘Education & Information,” or “Directional & Departmental.” And finally, keep a list of all categories created from this project for your main signage file.

The Nitty Gritty

At Rolling Green Nursery, we identified the sign categories illustrated below as they relate to the signage we have produced over the last several years. To be honest, some of these categories weren’t even on the list two seasons ago. We just recently added a sign category called, “Brand Reinforcement.” Two others not shown below are Internal signs for employees and Product Tie-in signage, which communicates the breadth of product offerings to your customers.

The following categories are offered up to you as a means of guidance and getting you started on your way.

Q & A With Dan

How much information is enough and how much is too much?
from Michael Pawelek, Pecan Hill Nursery, via FreshAirForum.com

Great question, Michael! You know, with so many plant categories and varieties, a common problem I have encountered speaking with garden center owners is having too many signs.

I have seen so many garden centers trying to do the right thing by providing information, which almost always ends in frustration for the sign maker and confusion for the customer. Some tips I use when I am signing a block of plants is to think “less is more.”

The last visual you want is a sea of white signs or for that matter something out of Times Square! When you have too many signs, the customer stops reading them because it’s overwhelming and daunting. They don’t know which way to look first and, as a result, they’re going to turn around and ask you.

As far as how much is too little, there’s no exact formula to determine how many signs are needed, but a rule of thumb I follow is that 20 to 25 percent coverage is pushing the limit.