Tuesday, October 20, 2015
9 Common Signage Mistakes to Avoid
Forbes: You have have a lot to think about when starting a business: business name, domain name, logo design, website design, business cards and more. Around 2 months ago I began looking for an office. I found the perfect location. One thing that I’ve never dealt with is a business sign. I can take care of the online branding, but I am still learning all the offline tips and tricks.
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My mother is a graphic designer, and let me tell you that these aspects of signage are so commonly misused and disregarded in the professional design world. Especially fonts and typeface. People, for some reason, stake all of their independence in their typeface. People just take all of their statement and mission and try to find a typeface that embodies their message, with complete disregard to legibility and spacing and balance and shape. All they care about is that the font is representative of their own quirky style and message. Something I was surprised to see was that improper install is one of these points. I never thought that signage could be put on backwards or upside down or what have you. I mean, there are those memes on the internet that are all about signs being put upside down or spelled incorrectly or something like that. In conclusion, hire a good graphic designer, not ones that make you happy.
To designers, this list may seem silly and obvious. But to people not design oriented, the sign may seem like a major obstacle. Googling "bad business signs" is pretty hilarious. But some of these honestly were just common sense. "Don't forget to get a sign!" Really? I feel like it takes a very specific type of person to walk into a building day after day and not realize that they should have a sign on it.
Secondly, I love it when I see signs spelled incorrectly. You really couldn't have Googled the word first? Didn't the manufacturer of the sign go "Hmm?" Unless you put together your own sign, there should be no reason for that.
Other than that, I thought the actual design ideas were nice. It's easy to not think too hard before place an object and realizing you ran out of space. Being thoughtful is a key part to designing anything, and non-designers should be aware of that.
Proper signage is so important! Many times this summer, I was working on signage and placement and after seeing it so often, I started to notice what is or is not effective. Some of these mistakes are somewhat easy to understand such as contrast and spacing, but some of the others are not as easy to avoid such as size ratio from a difference and confusing a logo with an image. I think that a lot of these are applicable also applicable to more than just signage but also designing paperwork as well as designing for theatre. Take for example, number 6: wrong material. The article states, "Some may think the most expensive lettering will make the best sign. This is not always true, some sign materials are expensive because they are made to withstand harsh conditions." This is relates directly to theatre, where we want the most expensive material because it will look the best, when you can do something just as effective with a cheaper, different material.
People often don’t think about how important signage and visual branding is. Logos, signs, and other visual elements a business implements pull on both our conscious and subconscious. This article takes a look at many of the obvious, and many nuanced details of sign layout. Oftentimes, your sign and logo will be a potential customer’s first impression, so it obviously isn’t something you should risk getting wrong. Currently there are many sign, logo, and general branding design companies out there to help businesses both new and old. Many larger businesses are even hiring full or part time graphic designers if they find themselves constantly needing new graphics (some event planning companies have their own or work with freelance designers, allowing them to offer these services to clients). Something I hadn’t given too much thought before reading this article was the aspects of material. I hadn’t realized there were so many signage materials on the market! I figured that in 2015 we were basically just making everything out of plastic at this point. Materials are definitely another important detail to consider when constructing a sign.
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