Even in this digital age, custom signs are still one of the most important parts of building your business' brand and expanding your physical presence. This is especially true if you operate a brick-and-mortar retail location or any other customer-facing establishment. Designing signage for your business should not be an afterthought, but instead should be treated as a major part of your physical marketing strategy. Making signs work for your business means creating a cohesive strategy around their use and designing your signs to fit that strategy.
Develop Your Plan
If this is the first time that you're using signs as a part of your overall business strategy, then the first step is to create a plan for their use. Many businesses simply choose to hang signs anytime they need to announce a sale or inform customers of an event, but this haphazard approach has some major drawbacks. Too much signage can overwhelm your visitors, especially if its design appears disjointed. This can work against the intended effect of your signage, drawing attention away from the messaging and ultimately wasting your marketing dollars.
To begin, identify locations in your establishment where signs can work. If you are going to be using window signs or door signs, identify a limited number of places for them. Even if your signage will be mostly temporary, it is a good idea to know where it will be used when it is present. Determine the maximum amount of signage that you can use without drowning out your permanent displays and be sure to view it from the angles that it will be seen by your customers and by passersby.
Design Your Core Look
One of the largest mistakes made by many businesses when using signs is to design each one individually. This leads to a lack of cohesion that can be confusing for customers and that can work against your overall brand image. Instead, decide on a general color scheme that you will use for signs as well as a handful of font choices at most. If in doubt, stick to fewer colors and fewer fonts to better tie the look of multiple signs together.
This is also a good time to decide on your branding policy. Will all of your signs include your business logo or other elements of branding? Will a cohesive color scheme be enough? If you create a simple "50% off!" sign, will this be exempt or will it adhere to the same branding considerations? Although it can be easier to ignore questions such as these, having a proper design strategy is the best way to guarantee that your signs exude professionalism.
Get Them Made!
Once you know how your signs will be used and their core design, it's time to get your signs made. If you're working with a company for the first time, stick to a few basic orders. This will help you get a feel for the production process and also give you a chance to alter your designs as needed to accommodate for any quirks in your printing company's process. After you are comfortable working with your sign company, you can move on to creating the perfect signs to complement your business' physical marketing strategy.
For more information, contact companies that made signage.
Share24 July 2019
Businesses come in all shapes and sizes. They provide us with all of the things that we need each day to live the lives we are used to. Are you considering starting up a business of your own? Do you have a hobby, interest, or skill that others could benefit from? Having watched as my son build a concrete finishing company from scratch, I have witness what persistence, patience, and hard work can do for a person. My blog focuses on what it takes to start a business and what you must do to ensure that your business is on a path to success.
