I've been thinking a lot about signs lately.
That's probably not something most creative directors admit.
When people think about branding, they usually imagine the fun stuff: campaigns, commercials, websites, logos, photography. The work that gets pinned on inspiration boards, wins awards or ends up in your portfolio.
Signs are just infrastructure... right? If I'm honest, I used to think so. Not because I didn't appreciate good signage, but because I hadn't fully appreciated how much of a patient's experience is shaped by it.
Working at an academic health system, I've always understood the complexity of our campuses. Hospitals, clinics, colleges, research buildings and university spaces all intersect, creating environments that are incredibly dynamic, but also incredibly complex for someone who's never been there before.
When I volunteered to become one of our team's primary partners for campus signage, I assumed I'd be helping review signs.
Instead, I found myself thinking about patients.
Somewhere along the way, something clicked. Signage isn't just about helping people find Building A. It's about helping someone feel confident they're in the right place. That realization completely changed the way I think about branding.
The first impression isn't always your advertising.
One thing I've come to appreciate over the last few years is that branding doesn't necessarily start when someone sees your advertising.
Sometimes it starts when they're trying to find you.
Think about someone arriving at a large academic medical campus for the first time.
Maybe they're bringing their child to a specialist or coming in for cancer treatment. Maybe they're rushing because traffic was worse than expected or navigating a campus that feels more like a small city than a hospital.
At that moment, they don't need clever copy or beautiful photography. They need to know they're following the right signs, heading toward the right entrance and that they're getting closer with every turn.
That's where signage quietly starts doing the work of your brand.
This is where brand people see things a little differently.
Facilities teams, architects and planners have incredibly difficult jobs. They're balancing budgets, construction schedules, engineering requirements, permitting, maintenance, safety, traffic flow and about a hundred other things most of us never have to think about. They're experts in their world.
Brand people simply bring a different perspective.
When we look at a sign, we're usually asking a completely different set of questions: Will someone actually understand this wording? Is this what we've called it everywhere else? Can someone read it from a moving vehicle? What happens after the sun goes down? If this is someone's first visit, will this intersection make sense?
On an academic medical campus, another question often comes into play: Which brand should patients be looking for?
Universities, hospitals, colleges, research institutes and physician practices often share the same campus. Each has its own identity and each identity serves an important purpose. But if those identities aren't thoughtfully coordinated, patients can find themselves second-guessing whether they're in the right place. They may follow a university sign when they're looking for the hospital, or wonder if they've somehow missed the entrance altogether because the name they're expecting isn't the one they see.
None of those questions are really about making a prettier sign or even just "branded." They're about making sure someone who may already be anxious doesn't have to spend precious mental energy wondering if they're headed in the parking garage, entry or even just in the right direction.
Sometimes the smallest decisions have the biggest impact.
One thing that often surprises me is how many seemingly small decisions can completely change someone's experience. From a typeface that's set in all caps and becomes harder to read from a distance to a system sign that's perfectly legible during the day but nearly disappears at night because the color of the lighting at night wasn’t considered. Even a building that's called one thing over the phone and is something slightly different in appointment instructions and something else entirely on campus.
Or something even bigger.
Academic medical centers are wonderfully complex places. Universities, hospitals, research institutes, colleges and specialty practices often share the same campus. Each has its own identity, history and purpose.
Those identities matter. But if we're not intentional about how they work together, we can unintentionally ask patients to decipher our organizational structure when all they're trying to do is find their appointment. Patients shouldn't need to understand how our institution is organized.
They just need to know where to go.
Brand, Marketing and Facilities walk into a bar.
No, this isn't the setup for a joke.
Although, if you've ever sat through a signage meeting, you know there are enough opinions in the room to write one.
The truth is, none of these disciplines can create a great campus experience on their own. Facilities understands construction, materials, maintenance, permitting and how to make a sign survive ten Florida summers. Operations understands how patients and staff actually move through a campus. Clinical teams understand the care journey. Brand and marketing bring something different: the perspective of the person who's never been here before.
That's why I think signage is more than "just a facilities responsibility." It's a partnership.
And like any good partnership, everyone needs to be working from the same playbook.
One thing I've learned is that signage standards can't simply be a page in a brand guide that says, "Here's the logo. Don't stretch it."
They need to be comprehensive and answer the why as much as the what and answer questions like: What sign belongs here? When should this lockup be used? What materials are appropriate? How should lighting be considered? When does a university identity take precedence? When should the health system lead? How do those systems work together without creating confusion?
Those aren't details. They're decisions that shape someone's experience.
It's one of the reasons I'm currently working on a system-wide signage manual. Not just as a design standard, but as a practical resource. My hope is that whether you're a communicator, marketer, facilities partner, project manager or sign vendor, you can open one guide and understand not only what should be built, but why those decisions matter.
Will it ever be as exciting as launching a new brand campaign? Probably not.
No one's framing a parking directional sign and hanging it in a design annual. But if that sign helps a nervous parent find the children's hospital without a second thought or helps someone heading to their first oncology appointment arrive a little less anxious, then maybe that's some of the most meaningful branding work we can do.
Because not every brand experience needs to be memorable. Sometimes the very best ones are the ones people never have to think about.