Sign making can be DYI or done by a professional sign maker. You can also create the layout and have your signage made, or you can let the hard work be done by a professional sign company. There are many considerations when it comes to designing signs, but legal considerations when it comes to sizing and placement of signs in most municipalities.

I’ve written several posts wherein I’ve discussed strategies to make your signs and/or banners effective and visible, the securing of sign permits,

Question: Our church is requesting that some of us “handymen” construct a double-sided internally illuminated sign for the church.

Are you able to help us design and build a 4’ x 8’ sign like this?

That is a loaded question. First, if you are in the US, Canada, or most Western European countries, labels are required on your sign requiring it to be listed with a government agency that has approved you to produce an electrical sign.

Original Question: We are designing some banners for our business, and are discussing what colors to use on them. What input can you give us regarding contrast and overall banner color design.

Part 5 will specifically deal with parallel signs. We may have slightly over-answered the question, but all of what we’ve outlined here supports the color question. All of the topics relate back to the issue of your sign being seen, so color is important, and so is the size,

Original Question: We are designing some banners for our business, and are discussing what colors to use on them. What input can you give us regarding contrast and overall banner color design.

In this section, Part 4 of this series, we’ll start by looking at more precise calculations for determining the area needed for a sign or banner.

Personally, I am not a big fan of algebra, but sometimes the easiest way to calculate what the Area of a sign (Asign) is by using one,

Original Question: We are designing some banners for our business, and are discussing what colors to use on them. What input can you give us regarding contrast and overall banner color design.

As we have talked about in parts one and two in this article, just throwing a banner up on a wall or a sign on a pole could be some of the worst money you’ll ever waste if you don’t have a “scientific” method for determining the size of letters,

Original Question: We are designing some banners for our business, and are discussing what colors to use on them. What input can you give us regarding contrast and overall banner color design.

As stated in part one of this series, I am borrowing heavily from the USSC publication “Sign Legibility Rules of Thumb” in order to show you, dear reader, that you just can’t slap up a cheap, poorly designed sign and expect the world to beat a path to your business’ door.

Question: We are designing some banners for our business, and are discussing what colors to use on them. What input can you give us regarding contrast and overall banner color design.

This is an excellent question. Most people want to put the 23rd Psalm (so to speak) on a banner and expect that passersby by will be able to decipher it from their automobile. I’ve seen examples of this where someone used red letters on a black background,

Question: I need a banner that is visible from 150 to 200 feet away as cars are driving past my business. What letter height should I have on the banner to make sure passing motorists see my business’ banner?

This is a very good question that many graphic designers completely ignore in designing outdoor signs and banners, but is perhaps the most important question that you can ask. The other question that I would pair with this is, “How much copy can be read in that 150 to 200 feet.”

It is important to know how fast traffic moves by the banner or sign on your business,

Question:  Are there any special considerations when designing an Outdoor Display?

Absolutely yes. This is a pretty broad question in the way it’s stated, but let me give you some pointers on a couple different displays that would be used out-of-doors.

Signs, large signs, main I.D. signs for businesses, billboards would be one broad category. So what considerations would we give when giving you advice on these types of signs?

Durability of the Material

First, durability is a concern,

Recapping the previous two articles on this history series, we’ve now covered what signage and print pressing were used for and the standard media that displays were made of – wood – up through electrical and neon in the past 100 years or so,