How to Design Signs

Signs, Signs, Everywhere are signs. I just love those lyrics but I get so frustrated when a sign doesn't clearly tell me what I need to know. A simple door sign, banner or yard sign should be explicit to your business. At first glance someone viewing your sign should know exactly what you are selling and why they should call you. A clear design and marketing message can make the difference in someone actually calling you or your signs just being an expense you can't afford.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper
• Pen
• Graphics
• Scanner
• Computer

1. Sit Down and List Everything You want on Your Sign:
   
   Just thinking about every single thing that you may want to appear on your sign may bring to mind hundreds of things but go ahead and list them and get a feel for what you want to say.

2. Categorize your List:
   
   Frequently you will see that your list includes Basics like your business Name Address and Phone, Marketing Message Items like Cost Savings at it's Best and Details or Graphics for your product or services. If you group the items on your list like this you can start to see a commonality between the ideas that you may want on your sign.

3. Rank the Groups and Lists:
   
   Creating a sign that does not have your business name may be ok but why create a sign that does not have your contact information. A really great graphic of your product can be perfect for a brochure but will it make your sign too busy? Sit down with a pad of paper and select the things that are most important to be included on your sign through the things that could be skipped if needed.

4. Do Test Designs:
   
   Even with the most basic word processing program you can design a sign. Simply add one item at a time, play with fonts and layers and the items from your list. It's your sign and you should see it well before having it printed. It's important to never remove the contact information but otherwise the design is yours. Does the name of your company represent what you want people to know about you at a glance? Does the Graphic convert well, will people know it's a hammer at 55 miles an hour?

5. Print Three or Four Possible Sign Designs and Get Feedback:
   
   Creating the sign that suits you best may be a simple task but you always want to get other opinions before choosing the final sign design. You may not want to hear that's way too busy but if it is you can save thousands in advertising dollars. And hearing that's perfect can really boost your design ability ego so it is important to ask around before submitting that final sign design for printing.

Tips & Warnings

• Simple may win over incredibly beautiful.
• Signs are Practical Advertising not works of Art in most cases.

[kristara]

on 9/16/2009 Great sign design info 5*

[sonni57]

on 9/10/2009 Good info on how to design a sign.