Creating effective signs and displays for your new business, trade show or retail event can have a big impact on your business—they contribute to first impressions, visibility, and selling your products or services. The quality of these materials in many ways represent to the public the quality of your business. When signage is left to the last minute, mistakes can take their toll on customer impressions. A simple checklist can easily help you avoid these crucial missteps that make you look unprofessional.

Spelling Errors

Spelling mistakes cast a sloppy image of your business, and can be costly to fix after the fact. Slow down and double check spelling at each stage of the design process.

Readability

What’s the point of signage that nobody can read? Highly stylized font choices, low image resolution, and tiny text degrades legibility. It can also be difficult to read if there is too much text crowded onto your sign.

Brand Consistency

Make sure all your signage looks like it comes from your business; fonts, colors, and the overall look and feel should be the same across the board. Signage can often be the first visual impression people get of your business—you want that image to be consistent everywhere.

Upkeeping and Updating

For long-term installations, like vehicle graphics and trade displays, upkeep is crucial for extending their lifespan. Clean, crisp signs also make a better impression than worn-out, stained and smudged pieces. This goes for old, rusty signage as well. Out-of-date displays can give the wrong impression to customers about your business. Signage can be an investment, but it can make a big difference to customer attention. As the graphics industry continues to change and grow with new technology, updating your old signage might be more cost-effective than you realize!

Wrong Materials

Signs can be made from a large variety of materials, but sometimes the cheapest is not the most cost-effective, and it can look low-quality. Choosing a flimsy material over a durable one, especially for vehicle, window or wall graphics, can lead to quickly degraded signage, and cost you more in the long run.

Need a media and graphics expert to help you create great signs? Reach out to Michael Kile of Alpha Graphics.