Design Tips For Creating Eye-Catching Signs

Signs only work if they’re seen, which means all design principles should centre around visibility and readability. Any information that can’t be captured in the short time customers spend looking at signs should be conveyed elsewhere. In fact, signs can only attract a customer’s attention for 20 seconds or so, so you should plan writing and graphics accordingly.

The fewer the goals, the better

You may be eager to tell the customer about all the ways your company excels at what it does, but trying to accomplish all those goals in a limited space like a banner means that for every point you’re trying to convey, there are that many more points competing for attention.

Instead of trying to tell your customer everything there is to know about your businesses and its products or services, focus in on one or two central aspects. For example, if you’re launching a new product that’s supposed to generate or reignite interest in your company, it’s okay to dedicate your advertising budget to the specific product.

Choosing colours for better readability

It’s not that common to see signs that are hard to read because people in charge of making banners, signs and posters know how important it is to be able to see things even at a glance. Some key considerations include:

• Not using colours that are similar on things adjacent, for example: no lime green font on neon green backgrounds
• Avoiding all light or all dark colour palettes
• Staying away from distracting gradients

Using a large enough font

If you’re conveying information, then the text should take up the majority of sign because it helps with legibility. Most commonly used fonts for making signs are:

• Helvetica
• Trajan
• Garamond
• Futura

Without getting into the typography of why they’re frequently used, it’s clear that these fonts have the right balance between legibility and personality.

Use the right graphics

Even if you don’t have the budget of a large corporation, you can still take the time to find a graphic that works for your purposes. There are a number of stock images that are available for use at affordable prices, or even for free. Picking the right graphic also means making sure that the image has a high enough resolution at the size it’s being printed.

The most important concept is to keep your signs simple in order to emphasize what’s important. The other part of having worthwhile signs is finding a reputable company make them for you.