Make a Sign

What does it take to make a good sign for a march or protest?

I thought this was a good time to talk about this since this Thursday, April 4, at 5 pm, there’s a demonstration downtown Chicago at Federal Plaza (219 S. Dearborn).  The reason for the demonstration? To demand the full release of the Mueller report.

 The weather’s going to be fairly good.  Why not come and join hundreds more in Chicago and tens of thousands demonstrating this Thursday?

Now, I have to confess, I have sign inferiority complex. Yep! I don’t make great signs. I probably never will make great signs. But I do make OK signs. And, I am gathering a bit of experience in sign making.  So here are a few tips.

The Materials

What to put your message on—that’s the first thing to figure out.  Oh, you’ll see preprinted signs at demonstrations, but as far as I’m concerned, they aren’t the most interesting. There are several usual materials I see. 

• poster board.  They make it in neon pink and green so that can really stand out.  You can buy it from The Dollar Tree, 2 sheets for a dollar. Personally, I don’t like poster board because it seems to flimsy.

• foam core board. This stuff is much more sturdy and comes in white (usually) or a paper coating of black paper. This is much more durable and also can be gotten at The Dollar Tree for a dollar per sheet

• corrugated cardboard. My favorite. I cut up old boxes. Cost? Zero!

• a handle? That a matter of personal preference. You can just hold it up with your hand (which is mostly what I do) or you can make handle for it out of paint sticks  (get them from paint stores) or short lengths of furring strips. Either one you chose, you can use a staple gun to attach to the cardboard or foam core board. Or you can use good strong wide tape (possibly duct tape).

•markers—lots of colors and with wide tips if possible.

What Should it Look Like?

“Make it colorful,” says Ashley Simone, a WFI group member.  And she does.  “Use red for important letters.” She also suggests either drawing pictures on the sign or printing out images from the internet and mounting them on the sign.

And pay attention to the message. If you are lost for what to put on a sign, maybe get some ideas from other people, suggests Darilynn Dinsmoor, another WFI member.  She googles ideas from others and uses that as an inspiration to develop her own ideas.

“I also look up famous quotations on the issues and use those in some of my signs,” she says.

A Look at the Past

If you need some more general inspiration, here is a slide show of signs from protestss in the last 26 months.

Please join us and Indivisible and other affiliated groups this Thursday evening downtown Chicago. And you can make your own unique sign.