5 Elements Of Effective Signage Design

Signage design is important so when you’re investing in new signs for your London business, you need to know that they’ll stand out from the crowd. From illuminated signs to wayfinding signage, how do you create eye-catching signs that really work? What are the elements that create successful signs that deliver a good return on investment?

Creating an effective and show-stopping sign is about more than carefully considering specific elements like fonts and colours. It’s about more than a sign simply looking good or being in the right place. Good signs are part of the story that your business tells about itself.

Aesthetics that create a connection

The way you convey your message can create an emotional connection with customers. A dull and plain sign can contain the same information as an aesthetically pleasing one, but a beautiful sign will always create more of a direct response in your customers. Be careful about the interplay of design elements and create something that is pleasing to the eye for maximum impact.

Supplying the right information

Signage design and information go hand in hand, with the essential information delivering the functionality to support the aesthetics. Ask yourself whether your sign includes the details you’d expect to see as a customer – is every piece of information essential, or can you reduce the amount of text yet communicate your message just as effectively, or more so?

Remember signage legibility and readability Beautiful graphics and punchy, well-chosen information will only take you so far. Now that you’ve captured your customer’s attention, they must be able to read your sign and absorb the information at a glance. However, it’s at this stage in the design process that things can go awry, particularly if you get the scale wrong. Charming graphic elements can assume monstrous proportions and elements can look out of whack with each other.

You should also be designing for accessibility. Design for your visually impaired clients and everyone will benefit from the clear and legible signs you create.

Boost your brand

However accessible your design, with perfectly balanced graphic elements and a strong, punchy message, you can still come unstuck. One of the benefits of creating successful signs is to boost brand recognition and identification. However, if your sign doesn’t connect with your brand, then it won’t connect with your customer to deliver that brand boost.

It’s not difficult to connect your brand with your signage – you can create consistency with the use of logos, straplines, brand colours and typography. If you’re not happy with those elements, then a new suite of signs could be the opportunity for a rebranding exercise.

Create a customer experience

Your signage design is all part of creating a welcoming environment that delivers a customer experience that’s superior to the other guys. By creating signs that are a seamless extension of your overall brand identity, you’re delivering another piece of the experience that customers will want to tweet and share.

Delivering effective signs

At The Sussex Sign Company, we’ll work with you to create effective signs that maximise your return on investment. Whether you’re in London or the South East, contact us and our end to end service will deliver signs that get Instagrammed and help you to create an experience that’s beneficial for your clients and your brand.

What’s The Truth About Branding And Signage?

What is the truth about branding and signage and branding.

Want to stand out from the competition? Need greater brand recognition? Then you need exterior and interior signs that are clear, coherent and well-designed. Of course, you’ll have to do that yourself because no sign company is capable of creating the great design you need to differentiate yourself in a crowded market.

That’s a myth. In fact, a professional sign company can offer you the ultimate solution to your branding and design dilemmas. By having your sign company design, create and fabricate an entire custom sign package, you’ll maximise efficiency, streamline costs and minimise hassle.

Branding: art or science?

Branding is a unique blend of research and design that leads to the development of clear and imaginative marketing. Impactful signs are central to any coherent branding exercise and a strategic signage partner will guide you through the process, helping you explore the design options and make the right decisions on materials. Your partnership will lead to the fabrication of cost-effective signs that form a central part of your branding strategy.

Business led branding

Ever hear the expression ‘less is more’? Your business should dictate the marketing and design strategy for your brand. For some businesses, minimalism reflects their business values – think Apple design. But for your business, you may prefer to take a more playful, colourful and maximalist approach, because it chimes with your branding.

But you should also beware of keeping signage to a bare minimum. Again, let the customer experience dictate the number and type of signs that you need, from exterior illuminated signs to interior wayfinding services. Don’t compromise the customer experience because you feel you need to conform to a certain design stereotype. Let your sign company lend their expertise to your evaluations and needs analysis.

Beautiful branding vs the real world

There’s a common misconception that conforming to accessibility standards for signs is anathema to great design. In fact, so-called great design or branding is no such thing if it’s not flexible enough to be accessible to all.

Working with a sign company is the smart way to combine form and function in such a way that style doesn’t compromise readability and vice versa. Through consultation and thoughtful design, your branding can stay on point, whatever the style of signage, to deliver clear, consistent and clever branding.

In fact, paying attention to the use of pictograms and being sparing with text can help you to create signs that are inclusive, effective and visually appealing. When it comes to words, less is very definitely more and signs are no place for verbal overload. Use short headlines and keywords and be sparing with words – leverage the power of imagery to tell your brand story and focus on the quality of images to create an impression and sustain brand recognition.

Find your strategic signage partner

Rising above the visual noise can be particularly hard in a major city like London. But it’s not impossible if you partner with a sign company with the expertise to help you leverage your signs to create that all important brand recognition. At The Sussex Sign Company, we’ll help you maximise your return on investment and help you get the best out of your branding, so contact us today.

Creating Killer Vehicle Livery For Your Food Truck Is A Piece Of Cake

If you want to stand out in the East Sussex food truck scene, eye-catching vehicle livery is a smart investment. Using van graphics is a great way to drive brand recognition, engage your customers and boost your sales – and your truck will look pretty enticing, too!

But how do you create vehicle livery that gets the message across and doesn’t get lost amongst all the other well-dressed food trucks? These are the key questions you need to answer to create a killer vinyl wrap that your customers will look out for.

What’s your point of difference?

You might know five other trucks that are selling the same cuisine as yours. So what is it that sets your food truck apart from the rest? It might be the authenticity of the ingredients you use, or an iconic dish you focus on, or even the way you serve it up.

Whatever your point of difference is, that should be the starting point that drives your design forward,

Who are you?

For most people who run food trucks, it’s a real labour of love and you’ll have thought long and hard about your business ethos and core beliefs. Imparting the unique vibe behind what you do is another way to differentiate your graphics from the rest and thinking about your values really gets the creative juices going!

Is there a design you love to hate?

If there’s a truck out there that already has the ‘ideal’ design, don’t despair. A good designer will use anything and everything as the inspiration for an improved version of a favourite design. So don’t be afraid to include rival trucks in your inspiration mood board.

Is your food mouthwatering?

Of course it is – and if it looks as good as it smells and tastes, you might be tempted to use a mouthwatering image on your food truck. If this is the right choice for you, make sure you use a professional photographer and submit a high resolution image for the best results.

Is your vehicle livery design over complicated?

If it is, step away from the truck and think about ways that you can strip everything back. Simplicity and minimalism in design always creates a great impression, because it says that you’re confident enough in your product to let the flavour do the talking.

On the other hand, let your designer unleash their creative flair and never shy away from using vibrant colours that pop – they might create just the tasty vinyl wrap you’re looking for.

Collaborate with the professionals

At The Sussex Sign Company, we offer an end to end vehicle livery solution that takes your ideas from design to execution. We understand how important your brand and your ethos is to your business, and we’ll work with you in a creative partnership to create the tastiest vinyl wrap and graphics on the block.

For the best possible return on your investment and food truck vehicle livery that will whet any appetite, why not contact The Sussex Sign Company today?

Is Vehicle Wrapping Effective For Branding In London?

The short answer? Vehicle wrapping is effective for branding anywhere. After all, anything your business owns is a platform for branding – from business cards to vehicles. In fact, your van or car can reach potential customers that your shop front or office signage can’t reach, letting you push your message out to your target audience.

The power of vehicle wrapping

Whether you opt for a vinyl decal with your contact details or a full wrap, vehicle signwriting is a powerful marketing medium with a lifespan of up to 8 years. There are no ongoing costs, because you own the vehicle, and there’s a positive impact on your professional reputation when you turn up to do a job in a branded vehicle.

A well-designed wrap not only puts your advertising right where you want it to be, but it can really grab the attention. Bold and eye-catching, your mobile advertising delivers a return on investment that no other channel can match.

Grand designs

Unless you opt for decals on your side and rear doors, there’s no denying that designing a full vehicle wrap can be tricky. That’s why working with a company that offers an end to end service is a savvy choice.

Designing in 3D gives you the opportunity to do something different with your marketing that really piques your customers’ interest. But unless you’re a skilled graphic designer, you need a professional to do the best job and maximise your vehicles’ potential to create brand awareness wherever they go.

The bigger the better

Any vehicle can benefit from wrapping, but there’s no doubt the bigger the vehicle, the stronger the impression.The most effective wraps in terms of costs per impression are lorry wraps – these vehicles cover long distances and move at a slower pace, making them an ideal showcase for your brand.

However, if you’re a local business and have a fleet of vans and cars, a vinyl wrap can effortlessly draw attention to your products and services, raising your professional profile and creating brand awareness, whether parked outside a job or in front of your office.

The point is, cost-effective vehicle branding makes the most of one of your underused business assets. With infinite options for customisation, it’s a marketing channel with costs per impression that make more conventional forms of advertising look expensive.

Highly effective

The bottom line for any business expense is the return on investment. Vehicle wrapping is easily one of the best investments you can make – not just in London, but anywhere in the country.

A well-executed wrap turns a neglected business asset into a mobile billboard, delivering costs per impression as low as 4p per 1000. That makes this channel ideal for startups and small businesses who may not have the budget for a big advertising splash.

Tie your social marketing campaign seamlessly into your vehicle graphics by adding your website or social media contacts – but remember to only do so if you truly are a social company who’ll respond to queries via Twitter or any other channel.

At The Sussex Sign Company, we can help you maximise the ROI on your vehicle wrapping, so why not contact us and turn your vehicles into your most effective branding weapon today?

Digital Wallpaper Signage and The Benefits For Your Business

Digital wallpaper is used when you need to move beyond internal wall graphics to make a splash, you need digital wallpaper. This form of signage can bring texture and colour to a space, as well as cementing your brand personality. This type of large format printing is ideal when you want to create a showstopping display, perhaps by creating a fotowall of your brand achievements for a particularly eye-catching look.

1. More scope for creativity

Whether you want to cover your walls with product images or create a calming atmosphere to welcome your clients, digital wallpaper gets the job done with ease. Whatever style you choose, you can create a unique aesthetic for your premises, directing your clients’ attention towards your products and your brand in a creative way. That level of personalisation can help to differentiate your business from the competition by creating a unique identity.

2. Always look on-trend

Because digital wallpaper can be printed on-demand, you can always be at the bleeding edge of new marketing trends. That’s because digital wallpaper manufacturers don’t sit on their stock and they can be more responsive to changes in marketing. If you’re a business that relies on your visual branding being top notch and totally responsive to the latest marketing trends, your digital wallpaper can change with every marketing campaign. That way, your fashion or beauty business can always look on-trend.

3. Instantly memorable signage

Imagine walking into your hotel reception or a fashion boutique and discovering a stunning high definition fotowall that instantly sets the tone for the premises. By creating images unique to your business, you can set the tone as soon as your customers arrive. That kind of attention to detail can also be instantly memorable.

4. Boost your brand

Have you ever seen something so amazing that you had to photograph it and post an image on social media? If you want your premises to take advantage of the fastest growing social media platform and be Instagram worthy, then this kind of decoration creates that instant wow factor and boosts the profile of your brand. The interesting thing about your personalised digital wallpaper design is that it’s your brand that attracts the attention as much as your wallpaper.

5. It lasts longer

Digital wallpaper is the signage that lasts. You don’t get the chips, dirt and marks associated with traditional forms of decorating and you won’t need to redecorate in a couple of years because that expensive wallpaper or paint is looking a little dull. Instead of paying the hidden costs of constant redecorating, investing in digital wallpaper means you’re investing in durability and a long lifespan. Digital wallpapers are fully resistant to wear and tear and look fresher for longer – which saves you money in the long run. Digital wallpaper can get you inspired to take your business signs to the next level, with semi-permanent displays including high definition fotowalls. Want to know more about the ways that digital wallpaper can boost your London business? Get in touch with The Sussex Sign Company today for more details, and we’ll help you maximise your return on investment with internal signage. Call The Sussex Sign Company today on 01273 424900 or email us here

Five Best Practices When Creating Retail Signage

Your in-store signage is the first point of contact between your retail business and your customers, and critical to creating a valuable customer experience. In fact, 88% of independent store owners surveyed by A.R.E. | POPAI intend to increase their budget for signs and graphics over their previous year’s spend.

Retail signs are a highly effective way of converting customers and influencing and driving sales. However, it’s important that you fall in line with existing best practice for the best effect, because if you’re not displaying your message effectively or in the best possible way, then your investment will be wasted.

Invest in quality

Start by investing in the best quality materials you can afford. This projects a serious and professional image of your business and inspires confidence. When your wayfinding signs are high quality and your halo lit fascia sign is eye-catching and high impact, you’ll differentiate yourself from the competition in the most effective way possible.

Narrowcast your message

Visitors to your store may be time poor and not in the mindset to be receptive to a large message. By narrowcasting – literally narrowing your message down to the essentials – you’ll keep the content of your retail signs crisp and current. Keep your signage location-specific or product relevant for the best effect.

Be consistent in your signboard usage

If you only use your signs to showcase promotional offers or point the way to the toilets, then you’re guilty of not using your retail signs as effectively as you could. When creating wayfinding signs, walk the store to create the most consistent path through each zone and then think about the ways you can incorporate retail signboards to drive sales and engage with your customers by using signs to convert interest in a product to a sale.

Think about signage placement

Window signs will need to be anti-glare, exterior signs need to be legible from a distance and promotional offer signs need to be placed in your customers’ eyeline. The placement you use for your signs is critical to their effectiveness, so think carefully about positioning, lighting and colour schemes for your retail signs.

Keep it simple

Try writing your signs as headlines with a clear hierarchy – headline text, message body, call to action. The fewer words you can use to put across your message, the more effective it will be, so use the 5-second rule to refine your signs. If it takes longer than 5 seconds to convey your message, then you need to go back to the drawing board. An effective sign has one simple goal – to encourage the customer to act in a way that benefits your business.

Ask the experts

Looking for effective signage in London? At The Sussex Sign Company, we’re experts in getting the best possible return for your investment. We can create a suite of signs and signboards that will promote your business and convert passersby into customers, so contact us via phone or email today for more details.

The Psychology Of Signage And Making It Work For You

If you’re struggling to break through the visual noise and get your business noticed, you may need to resort to psychological warfare. At least, you might need to look at the psychology of signage in order to break through and connect with your audience. Signs can increase sales, drive customer loyalty and improve the customer experience if you take time to understand the way they work.

The differentiation of the unfamiliar

In a visually dense marketing landscape, we start to apply filters that allow us to perceive messages selectively. Where signs can have an edge in differentiating your business in London is their relative unfamiliarity – we’re not bored with seeing them, so we allow our brains to take notice. In fact, 75% of people claim to remember a sign they’ve seen in the last month.

Signage has direct relevance

Relevant signs allow you to target the right customer, in the right place, at the right time in a way that other marketing channels do not. An ad for fresh sandwiches on the radio doesn’t have the relevance, context and impact of an advert outside a sandwich shop.

Adapt to your consumer with personalisation Your signage can be adapted for your consumer, with different signs carrying different messages depending on factors like footfall. Personalised signs are more responsive than other traditional advertising channels and are more responsive to consumer needs.

Let the consumer take control

Traditional forms of advertising impose themselves on the consumer. But signs that allow the consumer to take control of the way they interact make your advertising feel as if it’s less of an imposition. Allow your audience to interact with your signs in a natural and intuitive way and you’ll remove the negative connotations associated with pushy marketing. Your audience will make purchasing and other decisions based on the merits of your content, not because they feel forced into doing so.

Creating a better customer experience

Relevance, personalisation and control are all critical to a better customer experience. Instead of simply adding to the noise with irrelevant messages that consumers can’t be bothered to respond to, high quality signs are a genuinely creative marketing channel that delivers the right message at the right time and in a way that is fresh and relevant. Your signs can educate, entertain and inform, and persuade the consumer to take certain purchasing decisions rather than hectoring them. By earning your audience’s attention rather than demanding it, good signs deliver a great customer experience.

Ask the experts

If you feel that you’re losing the war for your audience’s attention, then take a fresh look at your signage. Using signs can deliver unexpected benefits when you understand the psychology behind them, but harnessing that power demands responsive, professional design for best results. At The Sussex Sign Company, we know how to maximise your ROI by offering a complete end to end service that delivers great signs with the minimum of fuss. If you’re interested in creating signs that break through the advertising noise, contact us via phone or email today for more details.

The Rules Of Good Signage

Good signage earns attention, and it doesn’t bully your audience. But how do you know what a good sign looks like?

Know your objectives

It’s always tempting to put brand awareness top of your list of objectives, but how do you intend to measure what that looks like? Instead, bind your objectives to clear metrics that allow you to measure success – or failure.

Identifying your target audience allows you to create signs that are relevant to your customers. It’s that relevance that drives action, whether that’s reaching out or making a purchasing decision. Be clear on your customer profiles, from their fears and desires to their emotional profile and spending habits, and let objectives and profiles inform placement, design, message and timing.

Know your location

The placement of your signs will differ depending on customer profiles and type of content. So an interactive sign aimed at women aged 40-55 will require a different placement to a point of sale promotion aimed at 18-25 year old males. Don’t equate footfall with relevance, and always take accessibility into account when locating your signs.

Understand design

The design of your signs should always complement the message. While the Stroop test shows that some level of disruption can force the brain to pay attention – when the word blue appears written in green, for example – be wary of splitting your audience’s attention as that can delay comprehension of the message. When the time to make an impression and impart information is already limited, it doesn’t make sense to slow comprehension any further.

Send a clear message

Your signs should prioritise a simple message delivered as effectively as possible. A simple message demands your focus and a response, and that counts when the human attention span is just 8 seconds – lower even than a goldfish. The point is that signs and signposting are very much a medium that is glanced at and they need to stand out from the visual noise of our modern marketing environment. Don’t make an impression without making a real impact.

Get the timing right

Timing is dependent on both the location of your signs and the medium you use to convey the message. A static sign is entirely appropriate for a roadside drive-by location, but won’t earn attention in a static location. Get the balance and timing wrong and you’ll frustrate your customers by failing to get your message across.

Good signage puts the customer first

Advertising often gets a bad rap, but it’s not the marketing channel itself that’s at fault, but irrelevant and intrusive content that turns consumers off. Consumers are responsive to well designed and relevant content – in a survey 77% of respondents said they wanted the ability to ad filter rather than flat out ad block – but you need to ensure that you’re giving your audience that optimal advertising experience. Make your content engaging, relevant and meaningful. Make enhancing the customer experience central to every piece of signage you create. With entertaining and interesting signage from The Sussex Sign Company, you’ll impress and engage customers in West Sussex and beyond. Call or email us today for more information.

Why Estate Agent Signs Still Matter In The Digital Market

The world of the traditional high street estate agent is under threat from the rise of digital and DIY options. RightMove has long been a first port of call for property hunters, but now estate agents themselves are moving online, offering some significant benefits over their bricks and mortar counterparts. So how can your business fight back against the online giants? It’s time for the traditional estate agent to up their game, and that means investing in better signage.

Enhance your business profile

Competition between bricks and mortar estate agents in London remains fierce, despite the rise of the online aggregators and DIY home selling solutions. So how can you make your business stand out from the competition? Strong and well designed signage acts as the gateway to your business, conveying brand trustworthiness, dependability and identity in the blink of an eye.

Offline branding through the use of great signs can help to define your unique value propositions, setting you apart from the other high street agents. Be bold with your design and use the best of modern technology to create a sign installation that really differentiates your business. For example, an LED illuminated sign can give a strong and professional look to your premises.

Investing in estate agent signs

Investing in new signage is one of the smartest things you can do in the battle for business. A well designed sign will act as a 24 hour advertisement for your business, building brand awareness every minute of every day, year round. When potential customers need your services, they’ll remember the impression that your brand made. Research by FedEx revealed that 76% of people have entered commercial premises based on the sign alone.
Estate agent signs get potential customers on board

Despite the amount of property porn that we can see online, nothing is as good as seeing a property for yourself and that’s where estate agent signs or boards can give you the edge. They promote interest, provide clear visibility for a property that’s for sale, and are a clear call to action to potential customers who are thinking of buying, and selling.

Your estate agent boards should be designed to achieve a range of outcomes – to attract the attention of passers-by and neighbours alike, since you never know who has a relative who is looking to move into the neighbourhood. These referrals can be tremendously powerful in influencing a buyer’s vendor decision making process. A proliferation of your boards not only builds brand awareness, it drives the impression that your company is the smart choice when you’re buying and selling property.

Employ the professionals

When you’re looking to invest in estate agent signs and boards in London, we’re your first port of call. We offer an integrated design and print service that takes advantage of a comprehensive range of cutting-edge, modern materials and technology to produce stunning signs with a high return on investment for our clients. Contact us via phone or email today to get more information.

How to Choose the Best Signwriter for Your Business

Finding a great signwriter should be easy in this day and age. After all, we have the internet with its range of trade checking websites to help us make that decision. For example, if you were looking for signwriting in Crowborough, you’d Google it and take your pick. But how will you know you’ve really chosen the right signwriter to take your ideas and concepts from design to installation?

If you want to ensure that you’ve found the right signwriter for you, you need to be clear on why you need quality signage for your company and the type of signage that’s going to work for you. Having the killer idea is only one piece of the puzzle – your signs should be executed to your specifications, using the right corporate colours and logo, manufactured from durable and appropriate materials and installed in the right place.

What Quality Signage Means for Your Business

Signs are a brilliant marketing tool for any business. They’re your primary visual assets, and they’re a powerful tool for promoting brand recognition. A great sign will differentiate your business from the competition – over 76% of consumers say they’ve visited a business because of the quality of its signs – and provide advertising 24/7. And once you’ve paid the upfront costs, good signage is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing there is, creating impressions all day every day.

Given what a great return on investment signage has, and how much it can boost your brand, finding a sign company that can meet your needs becomes even more imperative.

Individual Expertise or Integrated Services?

It’s very tempting to try to find the best designer and invest in some exceptional designs for your signage. After all, creating a visual wow factor is what will set your signs apart from the competition and attract customers to walk in off the street. Then you’ll need to find a company that can manufacture those signs and make good on your designer’s vision, and then you’ll need to find a handyman who can install them with good-quality fixings in the optimum position.

Or you could find a sign company with an excellent reputation that offers all these services as an integrated package. The advantage for you is that you’ll know exactly what’s going on at every step of the process. A good sign company will be able to optimise every step of the process and even offer you a maintenance package so your signs remain in the best possible shape.

Experience and Expertise

When choosing your signage provider, you can’t afford to settle for an amateur because your signs need to look polished and professional. You need a signwriter who knows what works and can advise you on the right design, colours, fonts, materials and message, and who knows exactly what size of signs you need and how to display them. It may be tempting to choose a start-up that has interesting and innovative ideas, but when you’re making an investment in your visual assets, you really need to work with a company that knows what works. Who knows, in ten years you might be asking that start-up to design your new signs now that they’re established and experienced in the business.

Ask around, and don’t be afraid to approach businesses that have signage you particularly like. After all, you don’t want to rip off their signage: you simply want to create first-class signage that boosts your brand and boosts your local reputation.

Check Out Their Portfolio

A sign writing company’s portfolio should speak for itself, offering you a wide range of creative and innovative design solutions for your business. After all, if you can see from their previous work that they’re capable of creating exciting and eye-catching signs for a range of businesses, the chances are they’ll be able to work the same magic for you.

Make sure the company offers a wide range of design options and would be happy to create a campaign that encompasses everything from illuminated signs to vinyl car wrapping. Do they offer a wide colour range and the latest print technology? And will they be able to source the best materials for the job?

Will They Work for Your Business?

A good signwriting company will really engage with your business to create signage that is active and engaging for your potential customers. Don’t settle for the passive and generic – if your signwriters can’t deliver a range of ideas for powerful and exciting signage, then you need to look elsewhere. If your signwriter has produced signs that really stand out from the crowd for other clients, then you can trust them to create the same quality of signage for you.

Choose a Company You Can Trust

You don’t always want a company that is cheap and fast – when it comes to signage, you want a company you can trust to deliver the maximum return on investment. Quality will always count when it comes to creating a suite of signs that attract the attention of potential customers and bring them in through your doors. That’s why you need a company like the Sussex Sign Company, who can create bespoke signage that delivers everything your company expects and more. Whether you’re looking for halo lettering, wayfinding signage or vinyl car wraps, we can deliver them all, so contact us today via phone or email for more details.