A business without a sign is a sign of no business! It doesn’t matter how great your product or service is if your exterior business sign is not making people stop and come in. It’s more than just an attractive arrangement of your logo and tagline. Designing an exterior business sign is different than designing a business card or a print ad. Exterior business signs must be readable from a distance and by people driving by. It has to be seen, read, and understood in seconds.
Placement: A sign placed parallel to the road has to be 70% larger than a sign placed perpendicular to the road. At 25-30mph the sign has to be readable from 410ft if the driver has to change lanes (155ft if no lane change is needed).
Size: The first rule of thumb in sign design is letters need to be 1″tall for every 25ft of viewing distance. Using the 410ft distance example above, letters need to be 16.4in tall (410ft / 25ft). Think of each letter as a square 16.4in x 16.4in – or 1.37 square feet each. Second rule of thumb is to add 40% white space for optimum readability. Say your business name is Cupcake Couture. That’s 16 letters at 1.37sf each or 21.92sf. Add 40% white space or 8.77sf. The size of the sign should be 30.69sf (21.92 + 8.77) for just the lettering. Add more if you want a logo or other graphic on the sign.
Height: The distance from the ground to the bottom of your business sign should be a minimum of 7ft so it does not block the view of traffic – check city / county sign code in your area to see if their regulations vary from this standard. Sign code will also determine and / or restrict the height of your sign. Using our example from above, the recommended height for a sign read by drivers going 25mph across 2 lanes of traffic (410ft) would be 12ft to the top of the sign. Allowing for the 7ft clearance at the bottom, the sign itself will be 5ft tall. Therefore, the width of your 30.69sf sign would be 6.14ft.
Other elements of a good business sign design: Adding your logo to your business sign will build brand recognition and is an important element of business sign design. Color choices are critical. Reinforcing brand colors is important but it’s more important that the colors contrast enough to make the sign readable from a distance. Illuminating your sign extends its effectiveness on short winter days and works for you 24/7. Even when you are not there, potential customers are driving by.
Your business sign is an investment that pays for itself rapidly. It’s not the place to cut corners! A study by the University of Cincinnatti revealed that 29% of people went into a business based on the quality of the business sign – that number goes to 55% for 18-24yr olds! Conversely, 49% passed by a business because the sign was too small or hard to read.
Spot-On Signs & Graphics is here to help you design a sign that will attract new customers to your business. Visit our website at www.spot-on-signs.com, email us at info@spot-on-signs.com or call us at (530) 295-8285.
