What’s it cost to produce this 20-by-30-in. 3D hanging sign?

This relatively small hanging sign was made for a store on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. They needed a cool 3D sign to catch the eye of the foot traffic in this very busy retail district. Sign is 20-by-30 in. overall.

I use a variety of small things that made the sign better—more interesting and more durable. I used an integral bracket and hid the hooks. I laminated the faces together to create the appearance of a single thick sign panel. I used digital printing on the graphics to keep the costs down. I also used standoffs to create layers to add more dimension and shadow.

I worked from a thumbnail sketch that I was given that was basically a round design on the square panel. I opted to go with an interesting sign shape with a lot of dimension. The original sketch included “www” in front of the store’s web address, which is something that doesn’t really need to be on any sign. There’s only one World Wide Web, so there’s no need to include that in front of a primary web address on someone’s sign.

When a sign will be seen primarily by viewers who are walking past it, having a lot going on in the design can help grab their attention. You want the sign to look a lot different from the signs they see every day along the highway. If you can create interest at that point, they’re much more likely to walk into the store to see what’s going on inside.