3 Effective Tips to Consider When Planning to Design a Custom-Made Business Signage

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The world’s transition to a tech-centric and fast-paced environment has made us advertise and market our products and services online. Nonetheless, if your goal is to actually capture your target market’s attention, sometimes an old-fashioned yet attractive and informative business sign can be your best choice.

Based on the survey performed by the FedEx office in 2014, more than 500 owners of small businesses in the United States think that store signages and graphics are efficient in grabbing the attention of by-passers, turning them into customers. Aside from that, 64% of millennials who own a small business (those who are in the age of 18 to 34) pour their creativity in their business’ signs and graphics. On the contrary, those who are older (55 years old and above) tend to go for a simpler design for their business graphic materials. 

Regardless if you want detailed signage for your business or a simpler one, its design can greatly influence the ability of your brand to get new customers buying or getting your services.

In 2012, Best Buy found out that around 17 percent of the brand’s total number of customers were those who didn’t initially plan to buy in there but did so because of the sign they displayed, thanks to their brand’s marketing efforts. 

According to Sapna Budev, International Sign Association’s director for strategic initiatives, there are 3 crucial principles when it comes to designing your business signage, posters, and banners that every enterprise owner should keep in mind. They are as follows:

1. The colors should be compelling enough.

Your choice of color for all your business’ graphic materials play a huge role in coming up with well-designed signages. Think of Pepsi as blue and Coke as red. As you can see, these huge brands are associated with their respective colors. Choosing the right colors for your signages and logo can help establish your brand’s identity. For him, he believes that the recognition of trademarks and companies that are highly respected today is because of the color they use.

One thing that every business owner should watch out is trendy colors. You might be tempted to use colors that are “in” today as they represent “modern” colors. However, if you design signages, you should take longevity into consideration because today’s colors can be next year’s eyesore.

2. Find the right contrast to enhance your sign’s readability.

The readability of your sign is usually dependent on its contrast. That is why contrast is a crucial factor if you want an engaging business sign. Budev explains that most signs include graphics or text in the center while using a similar or even the same colors. A business owner should be mindful of the contrast between the said items to retain your signage viewer’s attention to its content.

Here’s how you put it: Consider putting a light-colored text on a dark-colored background and vice versa. You can use white text in a black background or blue text in a baby pink background. Using indigo and violet in the text and background (basically, colors that are similar) can make the sign dull and unreadable.

However, if you can’t follow the above mentioned rule, you can try using an outline or a shadow in the text to help strengthen the content of the sign. Putting lines or borders can also improve the readability of the sign especially when separating the ones that should be highlighted and the not-so-important details of the sign.

3. And yes, size does matter in business signages.

This is too simple. The larger the letters in the signs, the more readable it becomes. The size of the letters and the sign itself is crucial for those that will be placed on the roadside or the ones that will be displayed on a long-distance (like a conference, for example).

The rule of the thumb when it comes to the lettering of outdoor metal signs for a business is at least 10 feet per inch for the height. This is the best size for the height if you’re planning to display it in a 100 feet distance.

The font style you use also plays a crucial role in the legibility of the sign, Budev declares. While using cursive or flowery font exudes style, it can be a problem when putting a sign in far viewing distances.

Conclusion

The list of things to consider before creating a custom-made sign for your business goes on. However, we highly suggest that you take all the three tips mentioned above into consideration when planning your next graphic materials needs. While your company logo is your brand’s main identifier, do not underestimate the power of displaying a good and effective sign, no matter how old-fashion you think it is. Because if there’s one thing that we’re sure that’s never going to be extinct, it is outdoor signages for enterprises.