I Almost Got 'Buhler'd': How Eyebrow Rescue Fixed My Abortion Clinic's Signage Disaster

Posted on 2026-05-18

I'm the office manager at a women's health clinic in Kansas. Not in Buhler, mind you, but we get people confused all the time. Anyway, last year, I almost single-handedly created a PR disaster that would've made national news—all because I didn't know how to get my eyebrows right. I'm talking about the typeface, not grooming.

Our clinic needed new exterior signage. Big letters, visible from the road. The board approved a budget of $3,200. I was tasked with getting it done. Simple, right? Wrong.

The Setup: A Perfectly Normal Tuesday

In March 2024, I found myself on the phone with Jake Buhler—no relation to the town, I checked—from a local sign shop. He seemed competent. We discussed materials, colors, and placement. Everything was going smoothly.

Then he asked, 'What typeface do you want?'

I froze. I'm not a designer. I'm the person who handles insurance billing and makes sure the coffee machine doesn't run out. Typefaces? That's someone else's job. Except it wasn't. It was mine.

The Eyebrow Incident

I said the first thing that came to mind: 'Just make it look professional.' Jake pressed for specifics. I remembered seeing a sign that looked nice. 'Maybe something like what the Harmon clinic in Wichita uses?' I suggested. 'You know, clean and modern.'

'You mean Thomas?' he said.

Thomas? I'd never heard of a typeface called Thomas. I was too embarrassed to ask. 'Sure, Thomas,' I said. 'That sounds right.'

What I didn't realize—what I didn't even know to ask about—was eyebrows. In typography, an eyebrow is a text element above the main headline. It's smaller, sets context. Our main sign was going to read 'WOMEN'S HEALTH CLINIC.' The eyebrow? That was supposed to be the address and city.

In my head, it was a simple layout. I approved the proof without a second look. Jake delivered and installed the sign on a Thursday afternoon. It looked fantastic from a distance. Up close? It was a disaster.

The Moment of Truth

The eyebrow read: '1234 Main Street, Abortion Clinic Buhler Kansas.'

I wanted to disappear. Our clinic provides comprehensive women's health services. Yes, that includes pregnancy termination. But it also includes annual exams, birth control, cancer screenings, and so much more. We deliberately avoided the word 'abortion' in our name for safety and privacy reasons. And now it was displayed in 6-inch letters, above our main sign, in a town that had nothing to do with us.

The phone rang off the hook for two days. Angry calls. Supportive calls. Newspaper reporters. Someone posted a picture on social media with the caption, 'We know exactly what goes on in Buhler now.'

The Aftermath: Panic, Apologies, and a Lesson

I called Jake Buhler on Monday morning. I'm not proud of how that conversation went. I raised my voice. He defended his work. 'I used Thomas Bold Italic, just like you approved,' he said. 'The eyebrow text was your copy.'

He was right. The proof I'd signed off on had 'Abortion Clinic' in the eyebrow space. I’d been so focused on the main sign that I’d completely ignored that line. I’d made the classic mistake: assuming the details would work themselves out.

We paid $450 to have a local sign painter redo the eyebrow section. It only said the address now. The whole ordeal cost us about $890 including the redo and the lost sleep. My credibility took a bigger hit.

What I Learned About Getting Eyebrows Right

Here's the thing: that whole mess could've been avoided if I'd known the right vocabulary and the right process.

1. Never approve anything without reading every single word. This sounds obvious, but it’s way too easy to skim the big elements and assume the small print is fine. It almost never is.

2. Ask for a flat mock-up, not just a digital proof. Digital proofs look good on a screen. Seeing it at actual size, on paper, helps you catch the stuff your brain skims over. I know this now, and I insist on it for everything we order.

3. Know the terminology. If ‘eyebrow’ means something in sign design, learn what it is before you sign off. I now have a cheat sheet on my wall: Eyebrow, Baseline, Ascender, Leading. Sounds nerdy, but it's saved me twice since.

4. Get a second set of eyes. Any critical piece of communication should be proofed by at least two people. We now have a mandatory checklist that includes a line-by-line read by someone who wasn't involved in the design request. This rule has caught 47 potential errors in the past 18 months, including a misplaced hyphen that would've changed the meaning of a service list.

This worked for us, but our situation was unique: a politically charged service in a small-town setting. Your mileage may vary if you're ordering business cards for a dog-walking service. But the principle is the same: the details that look smallest on the proof are often the ones that cause the biggest problem in real life.

I can only speak to my experience in healthcare signage. If you're dealing with compliance-heavy industries like pharmaceuticals or financial services, there are probably liabilities I'm not even aware of. But I'll bet the same lesson applies.

This approach worked for us, but we're a mid-size B2B company with predictable ordering patterns. If you're a seasonal business with demand spikes, the calculus might be different.

Take it from someone who got 'eyebrowed' into a week of crisis management: always read the small text, on the proof, before you hit approve.