By signcraft
Posted on Friday, November 22nd, 2019
Would you like your layouts to look like this:
Instead of this:
The bottom version certainly gets the job done, but the top version does it better. Why? Bob Behounek shows you how in this article from the upcoming issue of SignCraft [January/February 2020].
“There’s no use to second-guess how the original design came to be,” says Bob. “Maybe the client did it themselves. But it’s time to simplify it to create a cleaner message that is easier to read and understand in the proposed setting. Reading ten words on a sign quickly is a challenge. We have to modify the placement of our text and illustration to make this signage more effective.
“I chose the three most important words as the dominant message: Boylan Environmental Consultants. Stretching them out from left to right certainly gives our viewers a fast, easy read. Using the same dark brown for the text creates a very high contrast between the words and the background.
“My next thought was to make the secondary service copy a bit more difficult to read. Why? This removes the competition between it and the dominant messages. Using a pastel green panel under the very small secondary list of services will also give our main message a positive/negative look, sending the viewer’s eye down from left to right.
“As with much outdoor signage, the secondary text will have to be read the next time the viewer passes the sign. There’s simply no way they could get the entire message the first time they pass it. There just isn’t enough time.
“As simple as all this seems, there is a method to help resolve all types of sign design issues, large and small. This redesign has as much ‘open space’ as the original layout, but uses it in a more productive way. In the end, this advertising reads easier.”
Using proven sign design principles, Bob maximizes the uses of the space to make the sign faster and easier to read—increasing its value to the customer. Bob’s explanations of his changes give you valuable talking points to use when you are dealing with your customers. Bob does a redesign like this in every issue of SignCraft, so don’t miss them.
