Eye-catching colour combinations

Bear in mind when you’re designing your outdoor signs that certain colour combinations may look pretty on paper but are very difficult to distinguish from one another from a distance – one surprising example is orange on grey. A good way to test whether your logo or lettering will work well for an outdoor sign is to print it in monochrome and see if you can still read it. Your safest bet is to go with strongly contrasting colours such as white writing on a dark blue background, or dark red on yellow.

Skim-friendly lettering

Although it may be tempting to follow trends and use wacky or cursive fonts, remember that the main aim of having signs outside your business is to attract customers. So, if nobody can make out what your signs say, how are they going to know which services you offer or what products you sell? It’s usually best to go for a sans serif font for maximum readability, and try to avoid making your text overly bold, or the letters will appear to blend into one.

Make it memorable

Some of the most successful brands in history are proof of how impactful great signage can be – just think of McDonald’s, IKEA or Apple – we recognise their shop front logos from a mile off because they’re simple and eye-catching. Who knows, maybe your business will gain a similar iconic status if you get your signs right!

Less is more

Don’t try and cram loads of information onto your signs – especially not if the people who’ll be reading them are likely to be driving. Keep it brief so that potential customers can get an idea of what you do, encouraging them to come in to your shop, restaurant or showroom to find out more.
 

Keep it fresh

If you’ve done a great job of designing striking, readable and memorable signage, then you won’t need to continuously update your graphics, as they’ll be timeless just like the big yellow M. However, your outdoor signs are the first thing people see when they visit your premises, so make sure to clean them regularly and replace them whenever they start to look tired.

If you’d like to find out more about outdoor business signs, just give us a call, we’d love to hear from you!