Design your outdoor signage using our six secrets

Design your outdoor signage using our six secrets

The Six Secrets To Creating A Visually Interseting Outdoor Business Sign

You probably feel like creating outdoor signs is a big job. But we'll walk you through it (and give you complimentary graphic design help. Let's start at the beginning.

Why do you need an outdoor business signs? One reason: to get your message heard. The ultimate goal for your sign is to give people info, whether it be directions or the name of a business. This means that you want people to look at your sign. And you target audience only wants to look at something stimulating and visually appealing.

So it makes sense that your custom sign will be most effective if it's stimulating to look at. But how do you make that happen? By following these six keys to designing visually stimulating outdoor signs that we've developed here at TheSignChef:

1. Size
2. Font
3. Emphasis
4. Color
5. Value
6. Shape

Each component is looked at in terms of contrast. You'll see what I mean!

And as you become knowledgeable about what each of these elements has to offer, you will be able to envision and create an effective and appealing custom outdoor sign.

Size

If all the words on your custom sign are equally sized, how will people know which part of the message is most important? And how visually stimulating would it be? Not very. Even the headline and subheads in this article are of different sizes than the copy itself. If all of the text was in 12pt. font, you wouldn't know what part of the article was what. And you wouldn't want to read it.

The first secret to creating a visually stimulating custom sign to is to have words in contrasting sizes. But be careful not to use too many different sizes, which can make your custom look jumbled and confusing. Even just two font sizes will give your custom sign immediate interest. On a sign for "Amy's Flower Shop," you might make "Amy's" a smaller font and put it in the top left hand corner.

Font

You know that the font you choose for your outdoor business signs is vital. It needs to convey the appropriate feeling to your target audience. A law firm needs a professional, high-end looking font, while a flower shop can use a quirkier font.

The second secret to creating a visually interesting sign is to use contrasting fonts. Different typefaces make for a more exciting sign. They give people more to look at — more reasons for the eye to move across the sign. Just like with size, don't use too many different fonts on one sign (two is usually best) to avoid amessy look.

Emphasis

Emphasis can be as simple as putting some words on your sign in italics, in bold or by underlining them. Adding borders or shadows to words also adds emphasis.

The third secret to creating a visually stimulating sign is to use emphasis to contrast words. You can italicize certain words on your sign so they appear linked. For example, take "Amy's Flower Shop." The most important part of the message here is "Flower." People need to know that this shop sells flowers. You might place "Amy" above the F in "Flower" and "Shop" below the R. You can then make those two words smaller than "Flower" and italicize them so they are cohesive.

Color

Obviously, choosing a color theme for your custom sign is vital. You want to convey a certain feeling. Blue is a calming color, which might be nice on a business sign for a spa. Red connotes excitement or passion and would be nice on a firehouse sign. But you may already have a color theme for your business. No problem!

The fourth secret to creating a visually interesting sign is to use contrasting colors. You might consider making "Amy's" and "Shop" red and "Flower" pink. And that might look good. But to create real visual interest, you want to use two colors that contrast more than pink and red do. How about a grass green and a dark pink? See the difference? The feelings evokes by these colors also contrast. The green is mellow while the pink is bright and lively. Now the most important part of the message stands out more, but the eye is still drawn to other parts of the sign.

Value

Value refers to the amount of pigment in a color. What if the color theme for your business is navy blue and light blue? You probably want to emphasize those colors since they're already associated with your product.

The fifth secret to designing a visually stimulating sign is to use contrasting color values. This is similar to using contrasting colors. Maybe your business colors are navy blue and light blue. While the effect of value combinations is different, your sign still looks visually interesting. And it certainly looks cohesive and put together.

Shape

This refers to the shape of text on your custom sign. Maybe you want "Flower" to be slightly curved. You would not want to make the other two words curved as well.

The sixth and final secret to creating a visually exciting custom outdoor sign is to use contrasting shapes. If all the words on your sign are in the same shape, which ones stand out? None of them do. Try putting a curve on your main text and keeping your other words horizontal. Experiment with different shapes, but stick to just one.

With contrasting size, fonts, emphasis, colors and shape of the text, your outdoor business signage will have visual interest. Your potential customers will be attracted to your sign, which is the first step to making your outdoor sign effective!