Large format printing technologies are common and inexpensive nowadays. They make it easy for businesses to use highly visible banners to grab customer attention in a way smaller display signage can't.

A good promotional campaign is the core of successful business. However promotion doesn't have to be expensive. Your display signage is a great way to reach and influence customers.

Display Signage Is Economical Marketing

With all the advertising options available, display signage is still one of the most effective methods of capturing customer attention. One of the great strengths of visual displays is their immediacy. Once you capture customers' attention, all they have to do is walk into your business. With commercials, flyers and other advertisements the customer has to make a more deliberate effort to reach your company and it's too easy for them to become distracted.

Signs are inexpensive and durable. Once you buy the sign, it keeps sending out your message for no additional cost, bringing in new customers every day. Other types of promotion keep costing you month after month if you want to keep your message visible to the public.

Signage Design Tips

Since so many people are going to see your display signage, you need to consider the design very carefully. A sign is simply a communication medium and you want to be sure it is sending the message you think it is.

How far away will people be viewing it and how fast will they be moving? Visual displays for an indoor mall shop will be different than those for a store looking out on a busy freeway. If your visual displays are an indistinct blur, it can't do its job. Use simple designs and fonts. Fancy lettering may seem like a good idea, but often it just makes it hard for viewers to read the name of your business. Your logo should be clearly displayed so even if customers can't read the name, they will still know it's your business.

Putting Up the Sign

Once you have your display signage, you need to place it properly for maximum impact. It should face the direction you expect most traffic to come from. If you have multiple avenues of heavy traffic, use more than one sign. Most signs are either parallel with or perpendicular to the front of the building, but a diagonally mounted sign can be seen from both directions. Many businesses use two signs in the classic wedge shape so customers can see it from the front, left or right of the store.

Place lighting so the sign is clearly visible at night, even if your business isn't open during these hours. The sign sill acts as a promotional tool at times the business is closed. If it is well-lit, potential customers will remember your business and may come by the next day.

Change your display signage from time to time. A sign left in the same place for too long becomes part of the landscape and people stop seeing it. By changing the design, you keep your business image fresh in the minds of passing customers.

The design of signs and other visual displays allows organizations to deliver messages more complex than words themselves. You can take the same text, put it on signs with different design schemes, and produce completely different feelings in customers. It's important to be sure your interior graphics are giving the message you want.

What Do Colors Say?

Colors attach powerful emotions to your interior graphics. Reds project feelings of energy while blues are more calming. Dark colors can be unwelcoming while bright colors attract attention. The saturation of a color has a direct correlation to the strength of its effect on people. While the psychology of colors is not an exact science, it is a technique used extensively by marketing professionals.

One of the most common examples comes from the fast food industry. Most fast food interior graphics use shades of red and orange. Why? Because studies have shown these colors both increase appetite and make people fidgety and want to leave. This embodies the fast food industry - eat and run. These color schemes have contributed to greater food sales and to faster customer turnover.

Setting the Mood

What message are you trying to send to your customers with your interior graphics? You can't choose an effective decor until you pin down what mood you are trying to create.

In the fast food example, restaurants of this kind don't want to be too welcoming. They want a steady stream of customers moving in and out of the establishment. However a health spa would prefer creating a more relaxed atmosphere. They would use a cooler palette to have a calming effect on people. A dentist's office might use the same tactic to reduce anxiety in nervous patients.

Color isn't the only tool to create mood. What images appear in interior graphics are powerful influencing forces as well. Stylistic choices can strongly influence the type of customer who frequents the establishment.

Design to Your Demographic

Business owners should consider the type of clientele they want to attract as well as the population mix of the area when planning interior graphics. Consider the decor options for a small coffee shop. A business located in a downtown area would use a traditional decor aimed at young professionals on the job. A coffee shop located in an area of the city with an older, retired population might choose displays more reminiscent of a 1950s restaurant.

The wrong design choices can reduce customer flow. Hip modern design in an area with older customers is likely to fail as locals head to businesses with more familiar decors. Similarly, a design which works with older people could be seen as stodgy and old fashioned to younger clients.

Age, income, profession and more can influence what kind of graphics makes a given customer feel comfortable. All of these should be considered when designing interior graphics.