A confused, unclear and unfocused sign is one that includes more information than is necessary.

Before:

Take the care to edit your message to its essential minimum—and think about the "white space" so to speak.  Especially in a busy environment, such as a trade show or office lobby, you need to clear away a space so your message can be seen.  It needs to "pop out" from the background scenery.

Where communicating an announcement or featuring a product, design your sign for quick, brief attention.  Think about whether you want it seen at mid-distance or up close—or both.

After:

In the "After" example above, the product is more visible and flows right into the text message.  Before, it was sitting inside a white box by itself, not totally integrated with the whole.

As you can see, it's important to put some thought into how to best arrange any visual message.

A sign must communicate. 

But in order for that to occur, one must first and foremost figure out what the message is.  When you've done that, it becomes a matter of putting things in that contribute to the message.

In this photo, you see an example of a sign that has the purpose to help point people in the right direction. The intended message was merely an informational one, to direct.  It can be as simple as that.  No additional content was added, not even ads—just the name of the event and arrows.

At the onset of any sign project, decide what the intended message is—and you'll find it easier to design and produce it.