Indoor signs
Outdoor Signage Mistakes (And How You Can Avoid Them)
2/18/2025
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The signs on your building or around your parking lot can have one of the biggest influences on your business. Studies have shown that nearly eight in 10 consumers have entered a store they had never visited before based solely on its outdoor signs(1). For many of your prospective clients, your exterior graphics serve as the first impression they have of your business or organization.
But no matter how important your outdoor signs may be, it can still be remarkably easy to stumble when it comes to their design, placement and maintenance.
Common pitfalls with outdoor sign design
These are some of the most frequent mistakes that are made with exterior signage, and tips on how you can avoid or fix them:
- Low contrast: Picking colors that don’t have a high amount of contrast with each other can lead to your branding and your business being unable to stand out among your neighbors. Ideally, you’ll want high-contrast color combinations, such as white and black, black and yellow, or red and white, to ensure the highest amount of readability at a distance.
- Poor visibility: Several factors can contribute to poor visibility, including landscaping blocking your graphics, a lack of lighting and much more. When determining where to place your outdoor displays, make sure your local flora isn’t going to obstruct it in any way. If you’ve plotted things out and had a pylon sign installed before trees are in full foliage, for instance, you may be in for a surprise come springtime when all the leaves come back in. While you can get around this by trimming back branches or doing some re-landscaping around your signs, proper planning ahead of time is what’s best. Monument signs are often accented with flowers and shrubbery anyway, so planning your placement with landscaping in mind is usually a good choice.
Forgetting to think about how your signs are lit can also contribute to bad visibility. If your sign is the only one around your community without backlighting or spotlighting in any way, you’ll want to think about investing in it. Having lighted signs keeps them working 24-7 and helps your branding stand out that much more. This is especially important with informational signs, such as wayfinding signs, that your guests will need to see no matter what time of day it is. - Neglecting the weather: From high winds to brutal sunlight, heavy snow to torrential rains, there’s bound to be something nasty in the forecast throughout your year. While you may be used to whatever that may be, your signs aren’t – and forgetting to consider the weather and how your signs interact with it can lead to them facing damage or wearing out fast. For example, if you live in an area prone to high winds and are planning some outdoor banners to promote an upcoming event, you’ll want to think about using mesh rather than vinyl, as they allow wind to pass through much easier.
- Design no longer works: Whether it’s time for a rebrand or a renovation, sometimes your old graphics and displays just don’t work anymore. With many signs, there are still ways to adjust without a complete rip-out or comprehensive new installation. Many pylon signs can allow you to make changes to the graphics without needing to do anything to the base, for instance; monument signs can also keep the same base and have new lettering installed.
How do I get attractive outdoor signs for my business?
Work with Signs By Tomorrow! We’re your local experts when it comes to outdoor signage of all kinds, and we’ll make sure your graphics look their best from day one. Talk to us to set up a free consultation!
1. https://newsroom.fedex.com/newsroom/global-english/fedex-office-survey-standout-signs-contribute-to-sales
