Effective business signage means a sign that shows customers where you're located and which can also help to encourage foot traffic through the front door. Signage should be easily seen, easy to read, easily recognizable, and should reflect well on your business. To incorporate all those principles into your business signage, note a few simple but important tips.
1. Note the orientation
Most business signs are landscape, meaning wider from left to right than from top to bottom. This allows for more room for the wording itself. However, if you want your sign to stand out from the crowd, you might note if a different orientation would work. A sign that has lettering going down the side, or one that slants up from left to right, might seem more individual and unique and get the attention of passersby. If you can fit your lettering onto your sign and the sign onto your storefront this way, consider using a different orientation than standard landscape.
2. Always make the copy readable
The copy refers to wording on a sign, and you want to ensure this is readable when it's put on top of pictures. It's not unusual for signs to have graphics that help to communicate your business purpose, for example, a silhouette of someone in an exercise pose might be used for a yoga studio. However, you want to ensure that the copy or lettering and wording of your sign are always prominent; tone down the color of the background graphics and darken the copy lettering, or use a bold color for the lettering and a simple but thick font. However you combine graphics and lettering, be sure the copy is always readable and easy to make out, even from a distance.
3. Use contrast
Light colors for lettering on a light background can make your sign unreadable, and using darker or bolder colors like purple or red on a black background can also make the letters blend and difficult to read. Use contrast for your sign; white or very light grey lettering on a black or red background, black lettering on a white or yellow background, and so on. Avoid using too many similar colors, as this too doesn't allow them to stand out; red and purple can blend together, so that letters of these different colors may not be very legible. Consider how much contrast your signs have and ensure it's enough to make the lettering easy to read.
Share18 April 2016
Hello, my name is Nicole, and I spent the happiest years of my life as a preschool teacher. In that role, I learned how to inspire children, how to present them with consistency and how to catch their attention. In addition to all of the tactile and motor-related activities we did in my preschool, I also used a lot of signs and posters. Though trial, error and extra research, I learned what works when it comes to signs. In this blog, I plan to write about years' worth of firsthand experiences and behind-the-scenes research. My hope is that my experience helps you to design and find signs of your classroom, regardless of the age of children with which you are working. Please explore and enjoy my blog on signs and education!
