Design Tips signage

Design Tips

Tips for effective signage design:

1. Keep it visible and legible.
Remember that people of all ages are looking through a windshield, in traffic, day and night. They must be able to see and read your sign easily.

2. Save the details for the sale.
Don't attempt to sell them with information on the sign - save that information until they are in your business.

3. Keep it simple.
The proper design of your sign is critical to its effectiveness. Crowding the sign with too many words or lines of text makes it impossible to read from a distance.

* Use as few words as possible so your signage is legible. Fewer words are better, and three to five words are optimal for quick readability.

4. Grab attention.
There should be something about the sign that will reach out and command attention.

* Ideally, the first read should be a large pictorial graphic or your company logo, but it can also be large dominating text.

5. Your sign is your handshake.
Your sign is your handshake with the buying public, and first impressions are lasting impressions. Your sign must project the image you want the public to have of you.

* People will judge the inside of your business by how it looks on the outside.

6. Use new technologies.
The addition of a Time and Temperature display or an Electronic Variable Message Center can make your business a landmark in your community. With today's technology, signs are becoming more effective at delivering their owner's messages while also becoming more cost effective.

* The new electronic message centers allow you to change the message on your sign as easily as you change your mind.

7. Appeal to impulse buyers.
Many owners mistakenly think of a sign as merely a device that identifies the business. What they fail to realize is that 55% of all retail sales are a result of impulse buys.

* People see, shop and buy. If a sign is ineffective, it can actually cost the business owner more in lost sales than the entire cost of a good sign.

8. Aesthetics and suitability.
Your sign must be attractive and appropriate for your type of business.

9. Keep it near the viewer.
Put the sign as close to the street as allowable.

10. Make sure your sign is conspicuous.
Your message competes in a complex environment. A passerby must be able to differentiate your sign from its surrounding environment.

11. Avoid obstructions.
Make certain the sign can be viewed without obstruction from any source.

* Drive past your business from all directions to help determine the most visible location for your sign.

12. Use pictures or graphics.
It should have an attractive pictorial graphic or company logo that clearly grabs a viewer's attention first.

13. Make it memorable.
It should make your products or services, and your location, easy to remember.

14. Make it enticing.
Your sign should make a potential customer want to stop and see what's inside the business.

15. Consider colors carefully.
Too many colors take away from the quick readability of the sign. Again, stay simple.

* Make sure colors are contrasting. Yellow on white is not readable, whereas black on white is very readable. (Refer to a color chart or wheel for best contrasting colors.)
* If you have several colors in a graphic, stay away from multi-colored lines of text or words (they will compete with the colors in your graphic). Black text is better.

16. Consistent visual image.
Ideally, the design and the colors of your building should reinforce the design and colors of your sign (or vice versa). Color is probably the easiest and most cost-effective device for this coordination of design for business identification.

17. Avoid clutter.
"White-space" is the surface area of a sign's face that is left uncovered by either text or graphics. The proper amount of white space is just as important for quick readability as are graphics, text and colors.

* 30% to 40% of the sign's face area should be left as white space for optimal readability.

18. Place it to be seen.
An attractive and well-designed sign will only be effective if it is placed in a location that optimizes its visibility to passers-by. Your goal should be to make the sign unavoidable to the passing viewer.

In summary...
Your sign will do many things for your business, from creating the initial impression to providing the message to new and potential customers about your products and services. A sign does this through a combination of light, size, text, construction, placement and more. Keep these design tips in mind as you design an effective sign for your business.

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Source:
http://www.sba.gov/starting/signage/designtips.html

Lighting and Illumination

The primary purpose of signage is to communicate to your targeted audience in a legible, readable and conspicuous manner while remaining pleasing to the eye. To accomplish this task during all hours, your signs must be illuminated. For the follow reasons, give careful thought to your choice of signage lighting or source of illumination:

* A sign that is easily detected and read, no matter the time or weather, will pay for itself many times over during the course of your business.

* Electric signs are energy efficient, using light sources that are similar to the energy efficient lamps utilized inside your store. Cabinet signs are most often illuminated with fluorescent lamps. Lighted letters and logos are normally illuminated with neon tubing. Both of these forms of electric discharge lighting are highly energy efficient.

* Lighted signs consume electric energy at night when there is excess generating capacity and therefore do not contribute to the power shortages that have occured in some areas of the country.

* During the 1973 energy crisis, it was proven that illuminated signs are important to the safety of a community. The communities that passed ordinances to turn off signs quickly reversed their position when crime increased and business volume dropped.

* Illuminated signs can be readily maintained by your sign company. Many sign companies offer maintenance contracts so you can average your costs and avoid occasional large expenses, which you might be tempted to defer during a slow month, while assuring that your signs, will be properly illuminated to maximize the benefit to your business.

In summary. . .
Lighting and illuminating your signage adds a cost component, however it can also maximize your signage investment. There are many facts to consider; for answers to your specific questions, please consult your signage supplier who can provide professional insight.

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Evaluating Your Business Location’s Signage Needs

Before a business owner puts up a sign, it is extremely important for that owner to evaluate the business and its location in terms of its signage needs.

Carefully review and consider these criteria before designing your sign:

The type of business you operate
The type of street
Approximate speed of traffic
Obstructions
Business setback off of the street
Topography of your business relative to the street

1. The type of business you operate.
The very first thing you should do before buying a sign is evaluate the signage needs of your business in terms of the goals to be accomplished through signage. In other words, is your business:

* The type that needs to "brand" its site in the community, as with a doctor's office or auto repair shop, so that potential customers are aware of your business and think of it first when the need arises?
* A business that frequently advertises price or product specials, such as a grocery or liquor store?
* Rely more upon "impulse" stops and/or purchases, such as a freeway gas station, or a discount motel?

These factors are very important in determining the number of messages (or lines of text) you'll need, whether or not a reader-board or an electronic message center is necessary or desirable for your business, and help you determine the overall size of your sign.

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2. The type of street (e.g. two lane, four lane, one-way, etc.).

Traffic masking can obscure your message.
Traffic masking can obscure your message.

* With more lanes of traffic, any given sign may become less noticeable because of the traffic obstacles, or masking.

* As a rule, the sign owner should try to compensate for this loss through better sign mounting and/or an increase in the height of the mounted sign.

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3. Approximate speed of traffic.

* The faster the traffic, the larger your sign and its text must be to be readable.
* It is critical that the text is legible from a sufficient distance to allow drivers to read the sign and safely maneuver through traffic.

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4. Obstructions (e.g., trees, poles, neighboring buildings, other signs, etc.)

* For any sign to be effective, it must be clearly visible to potential customers.
* Obstacles should be overcome through mounting style choice, sign placement and the height of the sign as mounted.
* Before installing your sign, drive by your business from all directions to check for potential obstacles.

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5. Business setback of the street.

Image illustrating 25degree cone of vision

* A normal driver has about a 25-degree cone-of-vision through the windshield as they are driving.

* It is important that any sign be placed within this cone-of-vision along the roadway in order to be plainly noticeable to passing drivers.

* As a guideline, try to keep the sign as close to the roadway as possible and the text size large.

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6. Topography of the business relative to the street.

image illustrating topography

* Adjust the height of your sign's mounting (or select another mounting style) to compensate for any differences in the height of your business site relative to the street.

* Again, the goal is to make your sign the most visible it can be to passing traffic.

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In Summary:
There is important criteria to review and consider before designing your sign. Be aware of not only the sign, but also how it relates to your business, to your street and approach to your business, and how the structures and street all relate.

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