In this day and age of modern computers, ink jet printers and desktop publishing programs, I am still amazed to see that store owners put little effort in to producing quality signage for their stores. Signage is one of the most important ways to convey your message to your customers. Your store name, promotions, pricing, and product information may all be conveyed through signage. Are you getting these messages across effectively? As a customer walks by your store, you have about 3 seconds to let them know what they will find inside. What message are you sending? Professional signage will attract the customer, provide just the right amount of information and invite the customer to enter your store or try your product. Unprofessional signage is confusing to the customer and sends a negative message about your store and product. Common problems include ambiguous or misleading messages, spelling errors or signs that are difficult to read.
Effective signage has the following qualities:
QUALITY PRODUCTION You don’t have to spend big money to get signs that look professional. Having said that, you still need to be willing to spend a few rupees to create the image that you want to represent your business. Consider the lifespan of the sign. Exterior signage that needs to last several years requires a fairly large investment. The shorter the lifespan of the sign, the less it should cost. If you are running a small boutique, producing your own short term promotional or informational signage is perfectly acceptable, provided you have the tools and skills to do it well. If you are producing signs on your own, they should be produced on a computer, not handwritten. This might seem too obvious to mention, but I still see stores using signs that have been written in black felt marker. Use a desktop publishing or word processing program and quality printer and paper. If your printer and paper are not good quality, take your computer file to a print shop to produce your image. Mount your final images on a heavy card.
SIMPLE COLOR SCHEME Don’t go crazy with color. Pick a simple, two or three color scheme and stick with it throughout the store. Pick a background color, text color and highlight color. Make sure that the colors have enough contrast to be easily read. Red on black, while a dynamic and high power combination, does not have enough contrast to be easily viewed. However, if the text is very large, bold and only one or two short words, you might be able to get away with it. Outlining the text with a thin white line will also improve the contrast. Also be careful with combinations such as yellow/green or orange/pink/red or green/blue. These combinations can be powerful and trendy, but require more work with design to make them legible. Strong contrasts such as red/white or white/blue increase visibility and legibility.
EASY TO READ Make your signage easy to read. Don’t try to put too much on one sign. Some signs are so full of tiny images, starbursts, exclamation marks, and small print, that you can’t take it all in. One main image, a headline and a few bullet points are all you need on an informational sign. A sign in a store window should be even simpler. You need to get your message across immediately as the customer walks, or drives by. This means you can only use a strong image on your sign, a headline, or a simple combination of both. Some stores only use one word, such as ‘SALE’ or ‘EID SALE’ in the window, and provide more information inside the store. The more time the customer will be spending looking at the sign, the more information you can include. For example, a sign near your cash register, where your customer will be waiting for a transaction to be processed, can provide details of a contest or return policy.
CLEAR, SIMPLE MESSAGE Keep your message simple. Avoid trying to say too much. Choose one main message that you want to convey. Do you want to tell about a sale, a price, product info, return policy? Rather than say this all at once, try a sale sign on the top of the rack, price and product info on the tag, and return policy at the cash register. When you craft your sign, write down the message you want to get across, then rewrite it in as few words as possible. Keep reducing until you have one to five words for your headline. If necessary, write a small amount of supporting information below.
WELL PLACED Be careful where you place your signage. Place it where it will catch your customers’ attention, but will not block essential elements of your store. Think about how customers approach your store. If customers walk by your store, but your store name is only placed high up on your store front, facing the street, how will they see it? You also need to repeat the name on the door or window. Make sure signs don’t block traffic flow, displays, or the view of the interior of your store. Check for reflections on the window that make your interior signage invisible during the day. You’ll need to check this at various times of the day to find out what happens to the light and reflections depending on the position of the sun. You can improve the visibility of your signage by improving the display lighting inside, and by using light colors in your windows. Light colored signage will stand out, while dark colors will recede and virtually disappear behind reflections on the glass. After placing your signs, double check how they look from a customer’s point of view. Step back and approach the store as a visitor. Walk from front to back and look at all your signage critically and reposition as necessary.
SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY The simpler you keep your signage the better. Reduce visual clutter, and focus on getting your most important message across to your customer. You will attract more walk-by traffic, and avoid confusing your customer. Your sales should increase as a result.
Watch the video related to sign shop
IBEW worker doing it right making a NEON sign
Help answer the question about sign shop
I made a sign using print shop. How can I post it as a bulletin on myspace?When I save the file from print shop it will not let me save as jpeg or gif or any file type that photobucket will accept.
About Author
Imtiaz Ahmed is an innovative retail services marketer with over 20 years experience gained from the UK, KSA and Pakistan. He offers
free advice to retailers on operational and strategy
improvements from RetailingConsultants.com
Posted in 
Tags: 
This is real deal stuff. I just print skulls and snakes.
nice jobs on this time is hard to find a real artist and you are one of them. congratulations.
And here in Chicago, IL the weather is bad too, just in winter from November to March.
Hmmmm honestly I'm not sure. You can try asking the owner or manager about it. Or if it bothers you that much you can contact your local police department (non-emergency) and ask them. I too found that odd and now when I go into an establishment I often find myself looking around or covering the paper when I sign my credit card receipt.
~best of luck~
You can also try putting this question in the law enforcement section here they might know. If you do find out I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know.
I don't think that is oxidation. More likely heat damage. Take the bottle and the cork back to the shop and ask for a replacement. It's the store's policy to satisfy your purchase and the wine reps responsibilty to satisfy the shop. Great circle eh?
i want to work ther
i dont envy you working in such cold conditions…..im in western australia where we are at the other end of the temperature guage…..where often its over 45 degrees celcius.
every good sign shop needs a canine mascot….good to see you got your buddy right there with you!
cheers for the tour
Great film Doug. Man you look younger than ever. You have a very nice setup.
Dave Smith
excellent video … we should a DVD for Lost Arts Video! You are a highly skilled craftsman with some really unique skills
the situation sounds bad but there is no way of really knowing before a divorce happens. if you truly want to know you will have to talk about it wiith your parents. let them know how their fighting makes you feel. they may not even realise the effect it has on those around them.
good luck
1. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way . . .
These famous lines, which open A Tale of Two Cities, hint at the novel's central tension between love and family, on the one hand, and oppression and hatred, on the other. The passage makes marked use of anaphora, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of consecutive clauses—for example, “it was the age . . . it was the age” and “it was the epoch . . . it was the epoch. . . .” This technique, along with the passage's steady rhythm, suggests that good and evil, wisdom and folly, and light and darkness stand equally matched in their struggle. The opposing pairs in this passage also initiate one of the novel's most prominent motifs and structural figures—that of doubles, including London and Paris, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay, Miss Pross and Madame Defarge, and Lucie and Madame Defarge.
for the rest see here
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/twocities
Dougy, ya’ come a’ways since showcards ya’ talented old wick.
Nice glass signs. Guess I’ll have to visit your privy to view the rest…warm up the seat!!
Pat aka: Twill
:,-( Soooooooooooooooooooo not accurate!?! I'm a Libra and its the complete opposite for me. I am really a social drinker (with the occational glass of wine with dinner)….i hold/handle my alcohol really well (gotten drunk/not completely in control..twice in my life)….always have complete control and am the one to handle things at the end of the night (helping friends to avoid doing things they will regret the next day)…I'm a great drinking buddy; like to enjoy company (whether conversing in important matters as politics or simply letting go and being silly playing drinking games…and i won't make fun of you). I pick really good cocktails and know what kind of really tasty shots will get you hammered but not sick….i'll hold your hair while you puke (for the ladies) and put you in a cab or drop you off if I think your out of it
and i keep secrets…..
LMAO those are hilarious….they remind me of the signs here in Japan, that are like cartoon pics with different things and a diagonal line thru them so you know that you are not supposed to do them, like the one with a dog and poop, so you know that you are supposed to pick up after your pets……who would have thought to make a sign like that and post it all around the city!
I don't know where you find these but I will be saving this and sending it to friends. It was even better than the facts about the pig yesterday. Thanks for posting this. As far as funny ads go, I get a catalogue in the mail. It advertises "Discreet Massaging Devices To Relieve Feminine Stress, complete with accessories but you gotta get your own batteries. I got a laugh out of that, my favorite fingertip massage device to relive stress has always been a man and they don't need batteries! Thanks W. you make my mornings a little better and ya don't even know.
ROFL hahahahahaha LOL
that is so funny…why is that we get such a good laugh from other people's mistake?
hahahaha
This one just crack me up.
In a Tokyo bar:
Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts
Well done..you deserve many stars
This guy has mad skills. He’s a master for sure.
Doug,
We started lettering around the same time. Time flies when you’re having fun. Great video,
Lou Pascuzzi
It sounds silly, but the reason is because how you 'look' isn't necessarily proof of your age. They want people to understand that they will still be asked for proof of age even when they are several years above the drinking age. As you know some 18yo people look 25 and some older people actually look younger.
Around where I live the signs actually say anyone appearing to be under 35 will be asked for proof of age.