Tailor Made Barn Signs · Design Guide
The rules are simpler than you think — and most signs get them wrong in exactly the same three ways.
By Tammy Prebble · Founder, Tailor Made Barn Signs · 35 Years Graphic Design Experience
I've been designing signs since before desktop publishing existed. I started when drafting table with ink, Letraset sheets, and an X-Acto knife were in style. Today I run Tailor Made Rooms, where we've produced more than 6,500 custom farm signs and ranch signs for families across the US and Canada.
So when someone asks me what makes a good farm sign, I don't have to guess. I've watched what works. I've seen what fails. And after thousands of designs, the answer comes down to five things that most people overlook — and three mistakes that ruin an otherwise great sign every single time.
The five things that separate a great farm sign from a forgettable one
It can be read in under three seconds from a moving vehicle
This is the non-negotiable. If someone driving past your entrance at 35 mph can't read your sign before they've passed it, the sign has failed — no matter how beautiful it is. The rule of thumb I've used for decades: one inch of letter height for every ten feet of viewing distance. A sign seen from 50 feet away needs five-inch lettering minimum. Most people order signs with text that's half that size.
It leads with one dominant element — usually the family name
Good design has hierarchy. Your eye lands somewhere first, then moves through the rest. A farm sign that tries to say everything at once — name, phone number, products, hours, a tagline, a logo — ends up saying nothing. Lead with the name, large. Support it with one or two secondary details. Stop there.
It uses contrast that works in flat overcast light and direct afternoon sun
High contrast isn't just about aesthetics — it's about physics. Light bounces differently in overcast conditions versus direct noon sun. The combinations that hold up in both: dark navy on cream, black on weathered white, deep forest green on natural tan, white reversed out of black. What fails: medium gray on off-white, dark blue on dark green, anything pastel on anything pastel.
It's made of a material that can survive what your land throws at it
A sign that looked great at installation and looks rough three years later isn't a good sign — it was a good sign. Material is where most people compromise because they're thinking about cost today, not replacement cost in three years. We cover this in detail below.
It feels like it belongs to that specific property
The best farm signs I've ever designed have an almost inevitable quality — you look at them and think, "of course that's what their sign looks like." A cattle operation in Wyoming and a lavender farm in Vermont shouldn't have the same sign aesthetic. The typography, the design motifs, the color palette — these should reflect what the land actually is, not just what "farm sign" generically suggests.
The material question — and what most sign buyers get wrong
The most common question I get is some version of: "Should I get wood or metal?" And my answer is almost always the same: it depends on whether you want a sign or a maintenance project.
Real Wood Signs
- Warps in humidity and heat
- Cracks in freeze/thaw cycles
- UV fading begins within 1–3 years
- Requires resealing every 2–3 years
- Vulnerable to insects and moisture
- Can look beautiful — until it doesn't
DIBOND Aluminum Signs
- Weatherproof in every climate
- UV-resistant graphics for 10+ years
- Zero maintenance required
- Lightweight and easy to mount
- Same substrate as commercial signage
- Looks as good in year ten as year one
DIBOND — aluminum composite material, or ACM — is the same substrate used in commercial building signage, outdoor advertising, and architectural applications worldwide. It doesn't rust, it doesn't rot, and the UV-resistant printing process we use holds color fidelity through conditions that would destroy a painted wood sign in a single season.
Font and color: the two places where farm signs most often fail
I've reviewed thousands of sign designs over my career, and the errors cluster in two places almost every time.
Font mistakes
The mistake
Decorative script fonts that look elegant up close
The fix
Bold, clean serif or sans-serif that reads at speed
The mistake
Three or more typefaces competing on one sign
The fix
One primary font, one secondary at most — hierarchy through size, not variety
The mistake
Thin-stroked fonts that disappear against a textured background
The fix
Minimum weight of medium or bold — thin fonts are for print, not outdoor signs
Color mistakes
The mistake
White on light yellow, cream on tan, gray on gray
The fix
Minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio — when in doubt, go darker on the background
The mistake
Colors chosen for how they look on a screen, not outdoors
The fix
Proof in daylight conditions — screens are backlit, signs are not
The mistake
Three or more competing colors with no clear visual anchor
The fix
Two colors with strong contrast — a third only if it serves a specific purpose
What your farm sign should actually say
The content question is where people overthink things. Here's the framework I give every customer who asks:
Always include
Your family or farm name — large, dominant, unmissable. This is the sign's entire job.
Usually include
Established year, farm type (ranch, farm, stables), and one supporting detail that adds meaning.
Be cautious with
Phone numbers, URLs, product lists, taglines, and any text that competes with the primary name for attention.
The signs people are most proud of five years after ordering them are almost always the simplest ones. A name. A date. Something that says: this land has a history, and it belongs to us.
Placement and mounting — the final 20% most people ignore
A perfectly designed sign in the wrong location is still a sign that fails. A few rules I've learned from watching how signs perform in the real world:
Place your sign before the curve on curved roads, not after — drivers need reaction time. Eye level for foot traffic, higher for vehicle traffic. Avoid locations where seasonal vegetation (growing hedges, tall grass in summer) will obscure the sign by July when it was perfectly visible in March. And light matters more than most people budget for: a beautiful sign that's unlit becomes invisible at 6pm in November.
Mounting should be secure enough that a 40 mph wind gust doesn't rattle it — rattling damages both the sign and the post over time. DIBOND composite is lightweight enough that most standard post hardware handles it without reinforcement.
See what a sign built on these principles looks like
Browse our full collection of custom farm and ranch signs — designed with 35 years of expertise and produced on professional-grade DIBOND aluminum.
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