About

My name is Cate. I make signs. Or, rather, I design the layouts and mechanical details so that a fabricator can make the signs. Here are some Q&As from a 2025 interview.

How did you get your start in the signage industry?

I answered a Craigslist ad. An interior-architectural signage fabrication house outside of Boston was looking for an assistant designer and I got the gig. My primary duties revolved around the American Disabilities Act and producing accurate Grade II Braille room identification signage. From Braille dot size and dimensional location on the sign face to the contractions and intricacies of the Grade II translations, it was a fascinating place to start.

What project was the most challenging or the project you learned the most from?

For challenging – Before 2024, I would have said the work I did as an “essential worker” during the 2020 Covid-19 when I oversaw the signage packages for field hospitals in Worcester, MA and Providence, RI within a week or so of each.

Now, I would say this goes to the last project I “wrapped” – a nine-floor expansion to an existing pediatric hospital in Connecticut. I was given the opportunity to redesign the interior sign package, typeset all identification, wayfinding, regulatory, and donor recognition signage. Though there are still a few renovation phases to come, the bulk of the work was completed in 2025. A definite highlight of my career but also a challenge I doubt I would try and take on again.

What’s one thing you’d like people to know about signs or the signage industry?

Signs can only do so much. There’s a really fine line between having too few and too many signs in a space. Kind of like Goldilocks. You’re looking for that juuuuust right combo of what’s posted. A lot of the time folks think more is better to drive a message home – especially in directional signage. Too much becomes visual noise or what I call signage fatigue. You just give up and stop trying to decipher the signs.