What can a signwriter and signage help with?
Signage is a vital and established element in our everyday lives, allowing us to find our way around unfamiliar areas by locating addresses, highlighting buildings such as hotels, shopping centres, petrol garages, restaurants, casinos, hospitals and clinics during the day and especially after nightfall. On a more personal level, signage is a constant visual reminder of your brand identity, and is a very effective 24/7 passive advertising method. Static signage remains in one particular place, such as on your shop or business frontage, whilst mobile signs in the form of vehicle branding will get your business identity out on the roads to a wider audience during day to day travel. If you have a retail, manufacturing, factory shop or business, you need to let passers-by know that you are there and what you are offering for sale. Highly visible and interesting signage placed outside your premises will draw foot traffic onto your floor and increase interest in your product.
Types of signage available
There are many different kinds of signage available, depending on where the signage is to be placed for maximum impact. To name but a few, there are light box and door signs - as found in some EXIT signs - illuminated neon signs (static or flashing), signs made by sandblasting, perspex signs, billboards, A-frame standing signboards, banners, vehicle branding and unique office wallpaper which may include the logo, business philosophy or mission statement, as well as lists of what the shop offers. Fast food restaurants, for instance, have highly readable indoor illuminated signs with accompanying pictures and prices of the foods they offer, which speeds up the ordering process and keeps foot traffic moving efficiently in the area. The majority of these different types of signage have the same aim - to draw the attention of the buying public to the brand and the products, and to encourage sales, but may also be used as warning or direction signs. In some instances, graffiti artists provide a different and unique slant to signage by working with the business owner and using authorised available walls and solid fences as their advertising base.
Signwriters are ideas-based and creative
A sign is a very visible, catchy and concise way of advertising your business identity, either through an eye-catching logo or clever and fun word-play which gives an indication of the focus and philosophy of your business.
Whilst we may excel in our own business, it often falls to other specialists such as computer-based signwriters to conceptualise and design the advertising logo and wording which will represent your business identity and attract others to your brand. Signwriters are most often computer-based, and extremely inventive, intuitive and creative in designing logos which are symbolic of your brand identity. These are the specialists who will advise in bringing your brand to life, manufacture and install the signage as agreed with you. A signwriter will turn your ideas into a unique concept which identifies and advertises your marketing identity, from creating the design to manufacturing and installing the signage itself. An abstract computer design has to be enlarged and perfectly represented on site, and a signwriting company is responsible for ensuring that the agreed design is faithfully reproduced to the correct size and spacing to fit into the designated area.
Manual signwriters are artistic and patient
A manual signwriter is the person who actually paints signage onto walls or glass, and is not involved in the manufacture of other forms of signage, although he may be included in the initial design concept. He must have a number of natural abilities, such as some artistic talent, a good eye for colour, a steady hand, manual dexterity, patience, and be able to work on scaffolding at various heights. He must be able to stand back at the finish of his artwork and check that it authentically reproduces the design he has been given.
How to find the right signwriter and signage
Check their online ratings and customer signage reviews
You will find signwriters on the internet through sites such as Uptasker, where you can ask for and compare quotations, and read their online reviews in one place. If you cannot find the right supplier in your geographical area this way, you may be able to locate one through adverts in magazines, flyers, newspapers and the Yellow Pages, but you will have to source their customer reviews and testimonials independently. Your next best resource is through word of mouth referrals, but this may not be easy, since businesses do not change their signage regularly and new signage companies are being developed all the time.
