What Were They Thinking Thursday? - A Bad Sign

What were they thinking??

When it comes to the sign for your business you are making a first impression.

Your sign should be attention grabbing, easy to read, and most importantly....spelled right!

If you want to appear like a respectable establishment you might want to invest in...

1. an actual sign, not spray paint

2. spell check :)

Could they see this sign is misspelled??

Hmmm.....makes you wonder. Definitely not too precise.

Another thing to consider is the overuse of signage. If there's too much to focus on then everything just gets lost.

Again there too many signs here, some of the signs even hide the other signs!

All of these are really examples to show that the exterior of your business and your signage automatically give people a first impression about your establishment. It could keep people from even coming in your doors, and that's lost business!

------------------------COLORS------------------------

Of course one of the most important aspects to a sign is that it should be easy to read! One of the things that effects this most is the foreground and background colors.

To help you understand why some colors stand out more against other colors, we can refer to the color wheel.

Primary colors - red, blue, and yellow, and can not be created by mixing any other elements

Secondary colors - orange, green, and purple created by mixing 2 primary colors

Tertiary colors - created by mixing a primary color with a secondary color

Complimentary colors - colors opposite each other on the color wheel (red and green)

Analogous colors - colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel (blue and green)

How it applies to text and background color:

Contrast of Hue - the further away on the color wheel, the higher the contrast of hue. For text, simply a contrast of hue is not enough to make the text as legible as wanted.

For example: red text on a green background.

Contrast of Value - very efficient in creating large contrast. The biggest contrast of all, black and white, is a contrast of value

For example: White text on a Black background.

Contrast of Hue & Value - very efficient for text and background color

Yellow and black are different in both hue and value.

Blue and yellow are different in both hue and value.

Highest visibility color combinations to use on your custom sign according to the Outdoor Advertising Assoc. of America (OAAA) is as follows:

1. BLACK on YELLOW
2. BLACK on WHITE
3. YELLOW on BLACK
4. WHITE on BLUE
5. GREEN on WHITE
6. BLUE on YELLOW
7. WHITE on GREEN
8. WHITE on BROWN
9. BROWN on YELLOW
10. BROWN on WHITE
11. YELLOW on BROWN
12. RED on WHITE
13. YELLOW on RED
14. RED on YELLOW
15. WHITE on RED

(You can refer more good tips on signage at esigns.com)

Examples of good Exterior Signage:

Yellow on blue, high contrast.

Holiday Inn Express uses white on blue & white on green, easily visible from the highway.

White on blue, this is very crisp and clear.

Red on white for the W hotel, great contrast & very creative.

- Cassie