Good signage is critical to doing good business. Signage can positively or negatively affect a city’s appeal, consumer and visitor behaviors, and overall local branding and ambience.
But for those businesses and organizations that don’t have snazzy marketing teams to dream up the perfect brand logo and signage materials, and for companies who have perhaps too many options at their disposal, a solid plan for signage can get lost amidst limiting municipal signage ordinances, competing priorities and flashy tech features.
We spoke to Joshua Zinder, founding principal of Princeton, NJ-based architectural and design firm JZA+D, to find out more about signage challenges and the solutions architects and designers can use to create effective signage designs.
“As much as good signage can help your business, bad signage can hurt your business,” said Mr. Zinder. “Many businesses, especially young ones, choose a cost-saving solution. And by doing so, they often slight themselves because while it may be cost-effective, the signage doesn’t accomplish what they intended it to.”
One of the major challenges designers and business owners face is the clash of new technology and innovative signage strategies against historical preservation limits and other stringent city regulations.
People within the same community often have differing opinions on how their town should look.
For example, some people have been using the same signs to promote their business for years, but others in the same community – people seeking a ‘pristine hamlet’ – find those same signs to be a nuisance, something that clutters the city. The end result of many of these types of conflicts can lead to a lot of tension between residents and merchants.
There are often great reasons behind many city signage regulations, but new nuances in signage design – that haven’t been accounted for or currently aren’t allowed in many communities – can also do their part to improve communities and commerce.
“There’s a notion that the ordinances of many communities are too restricting and outdated,” said Mr. Zinder. “New signage can help denote the character of a community, rather than take away from it.”
Mr. Zinder noted three general guiding solutions architects and designers can use to help clients with signage:
>Carefully pre-plan interviews to identify target markets.
>Consider traffic flow.
>Understand the client’s brand.
Signage regulations can include guidelines for everything from size and location to shape, illumination and more.
“From our point of view, you can almost always design something great within the parameters of these regulations,” said Mr. Zinder.
Clear and open communication between architects and designers, clients, and city regulation groups is ideal in most projects, and the subject of signage is no different. Mr. Zinder noted that more often than not, clients do not have a clear picture of what they’re allowed and not allowed to do. Architects and designers have the ability, and responsibility, to be the go-between for clients and city regulators.
“It’s important to encourage municipalities to establish very clear, graphic guidelines for their cities. This helps architects create successful designs that comply with the regulations on the first run through.”
Mr. Zinder says that most communities have guidelines about signage in place, but the detail and degree to which they communicate those guidelines varies.
“There’s often a disconnect; it leaves a vague meaning that architects can interpret one way or another. Sometimes they interpret it in the ‘right’ way, and sometimes they don’t.
“And if those guidelines are not in place, or they’re not sufficient, architects have that ability to convey things graphically to clients and to the city.”
When cities have a historic district of some form, the historic district typically has additional regulations that stack atop the base municipal regulations. These can include size of the signage, how the sign can be framed, and approved lettering and fonts.
Clients and architects do have the option of applying for a variance, which would allow them to design and use a sign that does not comply with the normal regulations.
“The point of applying for a variance is that there’s a hardship for the person or business applying,” said Mr. Zinder. “But signage is rarely seen as creating a hardship. Bad signage because of limitations does not impede your business enough, so they’re not often granted.”
Countless types of signage populate our cities, and they’re each used for various specific functional and aesthetic reasons.
Noted below are several sign types designers should be familiar with:
>Blade signs: Signs that hang perpendicular to the line of traffic. Often used by businesses located on a secondary street, as opposed to the main drag, to create more visibility for passersby.
>Façade signage: Signage that lays flat on the wall/building, as opposed to blade signs.
>Sandwich boards: “Easel” signs propped up on the sidewalk outside a business, often used to advertise special sales and other messages to passersby.
>Illuminated signs: A sign with a lighting component. Designers can use lighting to create many effects, including soft glow capabilities and backlit effects behind a sign. Other options include gooseneck lighting (a light protruding out in front of the building and directed to shine back onto a sign/building), backlit awnings, neon signs, cove lighting, lightbox signs, and halo lit signs. “The lighting of signage has been completely transformed with the advent of LED lights,” noted Mr. Zinder.
>Directional and wayfinding signs: Signs that direct people toward specific areas. Often used on campuses or in other city areas where people might need additional information to find their destination.
>Digital systems: There are many different forms including fiber optic signs placed in window.
>Awnings: Any sign content that appears on the actual awning, typically placed over a window or entryway.
>Banners: Placed on light poles, and often related to the seasons, large community events, or neighborhood districts.
>Glazing signage: Includes any graphic sign designs that are glazed or otherwise applied to glass
>Freestanding signs: Signs not connected to a building, can take numerous forms. Examples include many iterations of pylons, as well as large signs that advertise all businesses in a commercial area (for instance, a strip mall).