Graphic design tips for your sign

Our Design tips for Free!

When designing a sign its important to think a little differently than how you think when designing a lot of other print material such as brochures, magazines, business cards etc. Probably the biggest difference is size and scale. Please enjoy our complimentary design tips below!

You really need to think about location, colour, fonts, material your using, message your trying to communicate. When you understand all of these factors you can set about designing a sign that works.

Lets look at the size. Signs range in size but are generally the largest things you will ever design. While the size of a sign can prove a challenge at the end of the day a good design is a good design.

The same design principles apply to signs as they do other print material, the difference is how long your audience will have to engage with your sign. Often they are designed towards road traffic, in this instance people will often only have one second to engage with your sign. For this reason things should be big, simple and clear. This is something that we will continue to stress throughout this blog, less is more in so many ways!!

Colour

This is very important to consider when designing your sign. One thing we always remind people is to remain on brand, if your colour is blue then use blue. On so many occasions we see smaller businesses experiment with different colours, if you do ensure that you keep in mind your brand and don’t move far from your original colours.

Another thing to consider with colours is contrast and visibility. Remember to use contrasting colours to ensure legibility. For example yellow text on a white background just doesn’t work. Some examples of common colour combinations may include: Black and white, black and yellow, blue and white, blue and yellow, red and white, red and yellow.

Remember to consider where your sign will be fixed, if it’s going on a black wall it may be an idea to avoid a sign with a black background. All common sense but sometimes get over looked.

Font

The importance of choosing the correct typeface is often overlooked by businesses when creating signs. This, however is one of the most important design aspects of your sign and can make a huge difference to the end product.

Lets remember the goal of your sign and how do you want you audience to react when they read it. Some things to consider might be: is it a bold statement, is it a subtle branding message, is it to communicate an important message, is it directional signage. All of these signs could use different typeface, advertising a sale or bold statement might be just that, bold and stand out, while a subtle branding message may utilise some of the modern thinner fonts. What ever your goal, ask the question does your font choice match the feel of what you’re trying to communicate.

Another important point to consider is from what distance will your audience view the sign, for example is it to be viewed from a large distance such as 30m it is important that the typeface chosen is large enough and can be viewed from great distances.

If we can give one piece of advice for choosing typeface for your sign, keep it simple and easy to read. Most signs get less than a second to get the attention of their audience; don’t miss out by making it hard to read with an artistic font!!

We hope these small tips assist you with your next design project. Always challenge your designers and sign companies to come up with the right design for your project.

Good luck and if you would like to enlist iCatching Signs for your next design project contact us today http://www.icatchingsigns.com.au/contact/