Four Sign Design Flaws You Need to Know About

Every business should have a great sign with a great design. Not many do, however. Sign design is often overlooked when businesses renovate or advertise to customers. However, your sign’s appearance is the first impression you will make to potential and current customers, and is therefore necessary to get right. Here are four sign design flaws that may limit your revenue potential, and how you can fix them.

Fancy Calligraphy

Your storefront sign design states a lot about your business to customers. The content, context, and the way it is styled can provide much information to prospective clients and customers. For instance, paint color, texture, materials, and even font can display how you run and operate your business. The most overlooked aspect in sign design is calligraphy.

If, for instance, you own and operate a fine dining restaurant, you may want to reflect your upscale establishment with fancy calligraphy like cursive with a Cantoni font. While the font looks fancy, pedestrians walking or driving by your restaurant may have a difficult time reading your sign, and your revenue will be negatively affected as a result. To ease customers’ efforts when understanding your sign, choose fonts that are legible yet appropriate to your business.

Trademark Infringement

Trademark infringement is a real, yet often forgotten issue when it comes to sign design. Sometimes, entrepreneurs and business owners believe any passing similarity in their sign design to another company is merely coincidental, not infringement. Trademark infringement can result in your doors closing before your business’s first anniversary, so be careful when designing your sign.

If you own an all-female mechanic garage and name it “Ms. Lube,” this is trademark infringement against the well-known business, “Mr. Lube,” and you will be sued for it. While this is a real case study in trademark infringement, you should be creative yet cautious when determining your sign design to avoid such issues. Choose your content carefully, ask a few friends for advice, and then get a lawyer’s opinion if you are still not sure, or re-do your signage to avoid such issues.

Location, Location, Location

Not every business can be located on main streets. You may not have the budget or clientele to justify such an expense. You may be in a smaller neighborhood that suits you just fine, like operating a sporting goods store in a school district. Your location depends on the positive and negative aspects of generating sales versus increasing expenditures to do so. Your signage, however, is as vital to your business’s success as your location.

The placement, not only of your sign, but the design contents as well, matter when customers are deciding whether or not to shop at your store. Put your sign is a viewable area where customers and pedestrians can read it, and make your sign design efficient to help them. Spread the contents out carefully and review them to ensure it is informative, and well-placed for their convenience.

Irrelevant to Your Business

Your sign design should be relevant to your business. Do not place irrelevant content on your sign and clutter it up or you will confuse customers. In addition, look at industry trends to see what is popular right now. You can always change your sign design if your predictions are wrong, but you cannot take advantage of current trends if you do not capitalize on them.

You should be aware of the various subconscious messages you send out by choosing particular fonts, imagery, colors, shapes, etc. when designing your storefront signs. Make a few sketches first and get advice from family, friends, and even customers. They can help you realize certain positive and negative connotations and impressions your sign design makes, and more importantly, how to fix them to suit your business needs.

Vital Signs is located in Markham, Ontario, and serves clients and customers in the Toronto, GTA, Thornhill, and Richmond Hill area. Contact us today for all your sign design needs.