Skip to main content

Basic Sign Effectiveness Guide. How can I improve my business visibility?

Signs can only be as effective 
as they are easily understood
by someone who doesn't care.

 "If they can’t find your business, they can’t give you their money." Joe Giral, creative designer for LetterBank Signs + Print

This is guide is a brief overview of sign visibility by way of type size, contrast to the surroundings and ultimately, how readable your sign appears.
Starting with letterform basics: [see terms to know, below]
What is “Type”?
Type
 is, for our purposes, a designed letter style, created to identify, direct, advertise, inform, embellish and compel. We design with type. That’s the LetterBank Signs + Print specialty. The right type can promote your business image, give clear directions, advertise effectively and inform eloquently.

People may know instinctively what looks good. With LetterBank’s help, you will also learn how and why it looks good, and better still, what works best for your specific project. Whether you are designing a sign for an office in a professional building, a gated development entrance or creating boat lettering, awning graphics, RV names and city or municipal ID, or creating a sign for your organization or school, LetterBank leads the way in customer satisfaction.  
Skillful type designers may try to capture the sense of a period of time, an emotion-related feeling or to evoke a mood in their typestyles. Using the correct style for your project is critical to success. Whether you want to catch someone’s attention, or present information in a highly readable manner, LetterBank designs will help.

Terms to understand:

Readability
How easy to read your sign layout is.
Using all capital letters makes it difficult if used for other than one or two highlight words or a brief heading.

Legibility
How readily is your sign understood? A simple sentence structure for a well-thought out singular thought is easier to understand than a casually thrown-together word pie with abundant superlatives and esoteric excesses.

Zones
Is your sign located in the right zone for optimal reading?

Conspicuity
This relates to how well your wording and sign layout stands out from its environment (other signs, visual distractions, trees and shadows, moving distractions, traffic and other visual ‘clutter’).

Ascenders?
The height of characters that rise above x-height . Ascenders may or may not exceed Capital Height.

X-height?



The height of the standard lower-case “x” as it occurs within a typestyle.

Descenders?
The portion of the lower-case letter that falls below, or “descends” the baseline.

Baseline?
The imaginary line along which flat-bottomed type, such as an x, h, l or k, “sits”.

Capital height?
That’s the vertical height of a ‘square’ letters such as an E, X, H, N, K, F, and so on in most fonts. Measuring rounded letters (like O, S, C) may lead to inaccurate or inconsistent measurements.
Why are only “square” letters measured?
In lowercase letters, “rounded” letters, such as o, e, a, g, q and p sit visually below the baseline in many typestyles. Look at the lowercase “a” in the example above. Now compare the line it sits on to the lowercase L (“l”) next to it. The “a” actually sits lower than the l.

LetterBank brings all the elements together for you. LetterBank.com specializes in typographic design.

The “right” typestyle can put your business in a successful light.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to make a simple Do-It-Yourself foam letter sign

Here are a few easy-to-follow steps for making a foam letter sign. Before you start, here are some basic descriptions to help you plan for what you need. You may want to print this out and save this or forward it to someone looking for guidelines. Contents : What are foam letters? Where can I order foam letters? How can I find the cost? How large do the letters need to be? available space (for your sign) how far does the sign need to be readable? aesthetics What do I need to have to make this turn out well? Using the yardstick Before you glue or cement anything in place You're almost there! What are foam letters? By "foam', I refer to the dimensionally stable extruded plastic "foam", which is cut into letters usually from a 4x8-foot master sheet. The sheets are usually available in 1/2", " and 1-1/2" thickness, so for the sake of this brief article, I'll refer to 1" thick letters when I mention foam letters. Foam let

Concrete letter casting basics

This is a beginner's guide to the basics of casting concrete   For specific details, search online for how to create concrete casting forms. To cast concrete with lettering and a logo if desired, you need a form, concrete and letters. The form can be on a flat surface, into which you can pour your concrete, or the form can be erect with a bottom, sides, a front and a back. Be sure to mix sufficient smooth concrete so that a spill or leak won't scuttle your casting pour. Stir and poke the concrete to reduce incidence of air pockets. For the sake of simplicity, this article focuses on using a flat form or pan for making pavers. After deciding on the form or pan shape and size, follow the basic preparation instructions. I Reverse-cast metal letters with a 7-degree draft for casting f you're casting pavers , especially those with a pattern, design or wording combination, you'll likely want to have a reusable form with multiple-use letters. Letters made to be

Crafts + DIY: How to Cover over Awnings with our DuraStik Self-Adhesive Fabric

Wait, what? Covering over Awnings can be simple Craft ideas below   So what's the scope of this #DIY craft project? We're going to go over how you can cover an awning that may have out-of-date writing on it to update the business name and information. To repair a tear on an awning tent or sail, jacket, canopy or flag, look here. You can cover over old names and information with DuraStik Why would you need to cover an awning? In the "old days", awnings were decorated with a special paint. The paint won't come off, so the best practice is to cover over with more pain- which can look pretty tacky if it's not done right. Modern awnings may be painted or if they're back-lighted, may have an area where light from behind passes thru the letters. This is called an eradicable awning. How can you use DuraStik self-adhesive woven fabrics? • When you're moving into a new store with an awning, • If the information on your awning is out of date, a