Creating a sign for your business, organization, or event might seem like a no-brainer, but designing a sign that will grab the attention of your target audience is another matter altogether. When crafting a compelling brand image or generating meaningful results, a well-designed, modern, and eye-catching sign can make all the difference—whether your goal is expanding your brand awareness, boosting attendance at your next event, or communicating important information. The numbers speak for themselves—according to a study conducted by the Sign Research Foundation, 60% of surveyed businesses who updated or changed their signage saw a 10% increase in sales.

Once you know the basics of sign design, you can create beautiful and branded designs whenever you need. There are always exceptions when it comes to creative processes, so it’s important to look at similar brands in your industry for inspiration and an idea of what works. However, the guidelines below provide a solid starting point to ensure your sign is clear and compelling.

Addressing the Logistics: What’s Your Sign’s Purpose?

First, you’ll need to figure out exactly what your sign is for, which will be the main factor in the design process. Some potential uses for signs include:

• Business Storefront Signs
• Trade Show Booth Signs
• Advertising Banners
• Informational Signs
• Wayfinding Signs
• Sidewalk Signs

Once you have the type of sign you’re looking for in mind, take some time to consider the sign’s location. Will it be outside in a busy downtown area or at a conference where it must compete with the signs around it to grab people’s attention? Is it inside an office and just looking to provide important information to visitors? Your answers to these questions help determine whether the sign needs to be simple or flashier and which colors and materials are best.

Lighting is also a consideration; for example, will your sign need to be visible at night? How is the lighting in your sign’s location? How you intend to use your sign will help determine if it’s necessary to adjust its colors or add some external lighting to ensure optimal customer visibility.

Choosing Your Sign Material

Once you know the purpose and location of your sign, it’s time to choose the suitable material for your needs. Vinyl, aluminum, and Dibond options are sturdy and long-lasting for outdoor signs. Suppose your sign is purely for indoor purposes. In that case, there’s more flexibility—as mentioned earlier, the materials and acrylic, foam core, and coroplast could all work and offer options at different price points.

Designing Signs: Best Practices

Use Bold & Clear Font

If nobody can read it, there’s no point in designing an appealing and beautiful sign. When creating signs, ensure the font is clear, legible, and easy to see. Taking this step will save your target audience some guesswork and give your business, organization, or event a professional look and feel. Low-quality signage can lead to lost customers and opportunities—the previously mentioned study conducted by the Sign Research Foundation found that 54% of American consumers had trouble finding a business due to the signage being too small or unclear. To be sure your sign is conveying information clearly, follow these best practices:

• Use a simple font. While using a cursive or otherwise fancy font might seem like it’ll add jazz to your sign, the truth is that it can be challenging to read and even look unprofessional.
• Use a hierarchy structure to convey information, display your most important/title text in the largest font and explanatory information underneath in a smaller font.
• Don’t place your writing over an image, as it can make it difficult to read and look messy.
• Center the font and ensure it takes up a good portion of the sign.

Choose the Right Color Combinations

Have you ever looked at a sign that hurt your eyes or was difficult to read because all the colors were just blending? Choosing the right color combination is essential if you want your sign to look professional. Luckily, there are tools and tricks to help you get the results you need, even if you don’t consider yourself an artist.

• Choose contrasting colors. If you have a dark background, use a light font. If you have a light background, use a dark font. This is also why placing text on top of an image can be tricky—images often contain both light and dark colors, which can cause the font to get lost.
• Go for complementary colors. If you’re not using your brand colors, choose colors that go together and make your sign easy to read. Canva’s Color Wheel is excellent for seeing which color combinations could work as a pair.

Ensure Brand Alignment

People like consistency, so your signage must align with your brand aesthetic. Not only will it help your loyal customers immediately recognize your brand when viewing your signage, but it also ensures clarity. There are several ways to integrate your brand image into your signs, from using your brand colors to including your logo.

Less is More

Packing as much information onto a sign as possible can be tempting to take advantage of the space, but less is more. A simple sign will be more effective in getting your message across because people can get the information they need with a simple glance rather than needing to take the time to stop and read through a whole page of information. Keeping it simple keeps people interested.

Include a Call to Action

Don’t let your sign be a missed opportunity—let your target audience know what steps they can take to find out more information or continue connecting with your brand. The best way to do this is to place a call to action on your sign, like one of the examples below:

• Call us today at 555-555-5555!
• Stop in and say hi today!
• Reserve your spot today!
• Shop our BOGO sale!
• Subscribe to our newsletter to get event updates delivered to your inbox!
• Follow us on social media!
• Find out more at AlphaGraphics.com!

Use Graphics Intentionally

When used intentionally, graphics can be a powerful tool for turning your sign from “good” to “wow!”. But what does it mean to use graphics intentionally? In other words, be sure that they’re high-quality and placed well. Pixelated or low-quality graphics send an unprofessional message. This is also an area where the less-is-more rule comes into play. Unless you include logos of various sponsors or it makes sense, don’t cover your sign-in graphics. Instead, choose one of two images that bring value to your sign and help strengthen its impact.

AlphaGraphics Specializes in Custom Signage Solutions

No matter the shape, size, or application, we offer various sign solutions for your business needs, including posters and prints, signs and banners, trade show materials, window, wall, floor graphics, and vehicle graphics. The possibilities of our custom signs are virtually limitless, so let one of our experts design the perfect sign for your business needs. Contact us today.