Signage that actually gets noticed

Signage is read at a distance, in motion, once

A sign is not a document. Nobody studies it. A person is walking or driving, and they have roughly two seconds to absorb it. Everything about the design has to be built for that one moment.

That means the primary job of a sign is not to be complete. It is to be understood instantly, from where the person actually is.

Start with what you want them to do

Before choosing a size or a design, finish this sentence: after seeing this sign, I want them to ___. Walk in that door. Park over there. Ask someone at the desk.

A sign that answers one question performs better than a sign that lists everything. If your banner is carrying the event name, the date, the times, the location, and three sponsors, nothing on it will be read — including the name.

• One message per sign
• One action per sign
• Everything else gets a different sign, or a different piece entirely

Size is a function of distance

The most common signage mistake is choosing a size by what fits the wall rather than by how far away it will be read. A useful rule of thumb: for every ten feet of viewing distance, the main line of text needs roughly one inch of letter height.

A banner read from thirty feet needs a headline about three inches tall. A roadside sign read from a hundred feet needs a headline near ten inches. Apply the rule backwards and the sizes become obvious.

Remember also that a walking reader gets more time than a driving one, and that a sign placed above eye level is read from further away than one placed at chest height.

Placement beats design

A perfectly designed sign in the wrong place does nothing. Every sign should sit in the moment of decision it is meant to serve.

• Exterior direction: before the turn, not after it
• The entrance a guest is most likely to use, not your main entrance
• The welcome area, at the point where someone is deciding whether to ask for help
• Above the thing it describes, not beside a crowd of other signs
• At a height where it is read at eye level, not looked at from above

Banner formats, and when to use each

A retractable banner is the workhorse. It sets up in seconds, packs into a bag, and works anywhere a person stands and waits. Use it indoors, for events, and anywhere the sign will move.

Tension fabric and pop-up displays are the better choice when the sign is the backdrop rather than the message — behind a stage, behind a photo area, behind a check-in desk. Fabric reads as a wall instead of a poster, and it photographs well, which matters more every year.

Backlit displays come into their own when the room is dim, when the wall is a focal point, or when the sign needs to look permanent rather than portable.

Outdoor flags and sidewalk signs work because they move. Their job is to get a passing driver to look twice, so they should carry almost no text at all.

The three failures worth avoiding

Almost every bad sign falls into one of these patterns. Each is easy to catch before printing.

• Too much text — the sign is doing a document's job at a poster's distance
• Low contrast — light text on a light photo, or a logo placed over a busy image with nothing behind it
• No hierarchy — the date, the location, and the sponsor are all the same size, so the eye finds nothing first

Do the walkthrough before you order

Stand where a guest will stand. Look where they will look. If you cannot read the headline from there in two seconds, the sign is wrong — and no amount of production quality will fix it.

Send us the wall, the distance, and the one thing you want people to do. We will help you land on the size and format that gets read.