The perfect signage is one that is attractive, tasteful, informative and represents your business. Creating the design that meets all these expectations might seem hard, so here are a few tips and ideas to make the task easier for you.
Some Things to Bear in Mind with Physical Signage
The purpose of using signage is to captivate the attention of the customers and to invite them to try your products and services. If you want to place your signage, you should use signage of the right size and that displays information with lettering that is easy to read. As a rule of thumb, your lettering needs to be of the height of at least one foot for every 10 foot of distance between the signage and the viewer. Be aware that written content takes longer to process than graphics, so try to limit the text on your signage to the minimum and use graphics that contains bold shapes, colors and contrast.
If you are considering billboard advertising or posters on the sides of buildings, take into consideration any object that might block out your signage, such as trees, bright streetlights or electrical wiring.
The other very important thing to keep in mind when creating your outdoor signage is the material of the signage. Synthetic materials, such as vinyl and acryl, are very resistant and suitable for using strong colors without the risk of fading.
Creating the Signage
Any signage is a combination of lettering, graphic shapes and colors. The human eye perceives color first and text comes only second, so using the right colors in your signs is essential. Nowadays, the trendiest signs use bright, bold colors that make the signs stand out in any environment. However, too many bright colors in the same logo can be disturbing, so try to limit your color usage to one dominant color and one or two contrasting, softer hues.
The font selected is also essential – you should use one, maximum two fonts on your signage and you should choose them with aesthetics and with readability in mind. Heavy fonts and fonts that have lots of ornamental elements might hinder readability, so take your time to test various solutions.
When creating your signage, try to put together a design that looks equally attractive on a large billboard, on your product packaging, even on your business cards.
Some More Tips
- Use uncovered space wisely – according to Denver sign company design experts, you should leave about 30-40 percent of your signage white;
- Use text wisely – 7-8 is the ideal number of words that should accompany the graphics on your signage;
- Recreate your signage every couple of years – using the exact same signage all the time will inevitably decrease the impact of the signage. To prevent that from happening, refresh your signage a bit every few years – don’t replace your old signs with completely new ones (that would be a huge mistake, especially if you have a successful brand that your customers link to your signage in their minds), just change the color a bit or replace a few elements in your graphics.