The other day I passed (on North Harlem as I recall, probably in Norridge somewhere) a sign shop whose sign was so busy and incomprehensible that there is no way I'd consider using their design services (which, after looking the sign over three or four times, I discovered they actually had). The sad thing is, so many marketing businesses seem to be very bad at marketing themselves. One wonders how they get any clients at all.
*sigh* Don't get me started on the woman that does the grapic design for one of the theatres I work with. Everything is pink and blue gradients in rounded boxes with her name all over it and the theatre's actual logo nowhere in sight. The woman has absolutely no concept of a "unified design standard".