OK, I know signs are not one of the most sexiest of things I could turn my hand to writing about but people say write about what you know and seeing that I have been a sign writer for almost 30 years I guess this is a good place to start.
Have you ever thought were we would be without signs. Literally lost. Trying to work out which is the ladies loo and which is the gents. That’s a fifty fifty chance. Not sure that I like those odds. Which is the entrance and exit? And do we push or pull the door when we get to it? The thing is even when signs are there, as large as life, sometimes they may as well not be for all the notice and attention we give them. It always amuses me when a customer comes in to the workshop and the first thing they ask me is ‘do we make signs’. I feel like running in to the street to look at the building to make sure my signs haven’t blown down or been surreptitiously removed by an over zealous local scrap metal merchant.
The next thing they say is that they want a sign and it has to be ‘this big’, gesturing with their hands the width of their body, around 50cm. And then they want the name of their company across the top in 15cm high letters which would actually require the arms of Shrek to carry it out of the building. The truth is that the majority of my customers have not got a clue when it comes to design and what’s involved in creating a sign that people are going to be interested in reading let alone taking notice of. Not that I hold that against them in any way. They do what they do best and that’s run their business. Design is what I do and that’s why they come to me. That being said the purpose of this blog and the following series is to educate and inform people of the science behind making signs and displays that will get your company noticed. Along the way I will tell you the tips and trade secrets that I use every day.
Watch this space for the following blogs:
- Great Expectations
- What am I trying to say ?
- What is branding ?
- Which Font ?
- TO BE or Not to be (Caps or Lower Case?)
- What is K e r n i n g ?
- What about Colour ?
- What it takes to get you noticed
- How to get 25%, 75% and 300% more notice
- How BIG?
- If the shape fits
- Turning negative to positive
- Where to put it
- Up a bit
Stay tuned!
Phil Aliphon, Director
One comment
Looking forward to the forthcoming posts!