The City of Bloomington is updating its advertising sign code, which was adopted in 1979 and hasn't been meaningfully updated since then.
The city has invited residents, sign contractors and industry professionals to add their voices to the process. It held an open house last month and is now soliciting feedback through an online survey. The survey tool also allows people to drop a pin where they have noticed a particularly good or bad sign.
The survey is open through late October.
"We are working in the world of the internet, and so the purpose of signs has changed quite a bit," said Marcus Ricci, city planner with the City of Bloomington. He said the city doesn't want to create the new sign code in a vacuum; they want feedback.
"Give us your input at the beginning," Ricci requested.
Bloomington has partnered with a Michigan-based consulting firm, McKenna. Kevin Garcia represents McKenna on the project. Garcia said "it's time for a refresh and an update," to "really just bring it into these times."
Garcia cited McKenna's work in Holland, Mich. as particularly successful and a potential example for Bloomington.
"If you go to Holland, you'll see there's a coherence to the signs, especially in their downtown area," Garcia said. "It doesn't look cluttered, doesn't look messy. And really at the end of the day, signs are to inform people of what businesses are there or to guide them to places."
Ricci said the updated sign code is likely to address both business and residential areas. He said business districts like Downtown Bloomington will likely be treated differently from other areas, and residential areas may have completely different rules.
Garcia said businesses, schools and churches in residential areas pose a unique problem. Bright digital signs may be fine during the day, but at night they may disrupt the neighborhood. On the other hand, people run businesses out of their homes these days and need a way to advertise their products and services.
Other trends Ricci hopes to address in the new code include "the era of graphics and people covering their entire storefront windows — which used to be lovely displays of merchandise and signs — are now just filled with advertisements for liquor or cannabis or vape shops."
He added in the future, this might be OK in some parts of the city and not others.
"It interferes with any transparency requirements that we have, and might not be the image that we want," Ricci said.
"We're also looking at the possibilities of having overlay districts for transportation corridors like Veterans Parkway, where you might need a sign to be larger because you're driving 45 miles an hour."
'Practicality number one: Can you read it?'
A brand expert says business's signage is more than just the logo hanging from the front of the building. It connects to a company's overall marketing and brand strategy.
Micah Vetter studied graphic design at Illinois State University and now owns her own company, No Matter Brands. She operates out of Downtown Bloomington and creates brand identities for small-to-medium businesses. Vetter said "a brand should feel like a person" and "the logo is like having a name tag when you go to an event."
She said she often sees business owners rush into buying a sign for their new storefront, before they've thought it all the way through.
"You need to invest in understanding who your business is before you jump into adding signage," Vetter said.
She added that signage is expensive and shouldn’t be rushed. A typical mistake she sees is "they get their business running, they make their quick logo on Canva or something, and then they put it up on a sign that's thousands of dollars. And then a year later, they come to someone like me, want to redo it all, but they don't think about all the other expenses that it's going to take to flip all those design choices that they've made already."
Vetter suggested business owners consider their signage from several different locations outside of the building.
"If you can't read or understand what's going on on your window or signage in all of those spots, then you have too many things, or something's not working," she said. "So practicality number one is: Can you read it? Signs are meant to be read, and I think a lot of people forget that and they just make it pretty."
Vetter said the color, size and material of signs can be used to either group businesses together or to set them apart. She said design trends come and go, but some things about strong signage never change. A strong brand visual "should always make you stop and stare," she said.
In addition, people need to be able to connect with the imagery and it needs to build trust.
The scope of the current project is only within the City of Bloomington. But Ricci said the city is collaborating with the Town of Normal in the hopes that the final product could help with both municipalities.
