Southern California Sign Blog

Graphic Design in the Sign & Banner World | Los Angeles Sign Company

Posted by Julie Ramirez on Mon, Jul 21, 2014 @ 06:07 AM

Graphic Design in the Sign & Banner World | Los Angeles Sign Company

For many years, signs have played a major role in promoting business brands, so because signs are important tools of communicating your presence, it pays to have properly installed signs. Signage and graphic design are old concepts, but they continue to evolve to meet the needs of businesses and customers. By finding the right sign, you can be assured of getting your business ideals being turned into stunning and high-impact signs that can generate the desired results. So what makes a sign effective? A powerful sign should have good color, readable, legible, visible, and noticeable. Experts say that advertisements with photos or images have a 300% greater recall than advertisement without images.

Visibility: The sign and the message should be visible from a distance. Additionally, the signs should be unique from the settings within which they have been installed. Light colored letters and a dark background can help enhance visibility of small signs. This helps magnify the sign, hence making it easier for the audience to read.

Readability: It is necessary to make your signs readable—and this can be done by choosing a good design for individual letters. For example, yellow letters on a black background are the simplest color combinations that can be read easily. You need to contact your sign expert to help you choose the right color combinations.

Noticeable: The ease with which your signs can be noticed can influence the decision of an undecided audience. You should draw the attention of your audience by amending the color, shape and size of the sign as frequently as possible.

Legibility: The typestyles that you choose speak a lot to your audience. By selecting the right styles, font size and spacing, you will help your readers distinguish your words by making the ads legible.

Color Graphics and Digital Graphics

Full-color images are undoubtedly powerful, as they can capture the attention of the reader, instantly bringing them onboard. Full-color graphics is considered a major advancement in visual technology. According to image consultants, full-color graphics are powerful statements of your firm’s market leadership. Businesses that have embraced this technology have been able to leverage its elements to generate even more public interest and drive traffic to their stores. Full-color graphics has the capacity to:

  • Improve your professional image and assert the credibility of the organization.

  • Enhance brand awareness and stress the need for the customers to associate with the brand, thereby creating brand loyalty.

  • Create a significant difference between your brand and the rest of the players in the market.

We come across thousands of marketing messages every day, but the truth is only a few ads create a sustainable impact. With the right full-color graphics, you can make your marketing message pull through in a big way and help your business earn dividends in terms of increases sales. There are numerous application areas for signs and they include:

  • Posters
  • Exhibits at tradeshows and displays
  • Point-of-sale signs
  • Vehicle graphics
  • Building signs
  • Traffic signs
  • Dynamic digital signs

Types of Color Displays

A notable challenge of full-color digital printing is the fact that it is difficult to ensure that all colors meet your expectations, which is why color display technology comes in handy. Your sign experts at The Sign Studio will ensure that all your signs have the right colors that can grab your customers. 

The easiest and most cost-effective way of making your signs appeal to your customers is by allowing experts in sign creation to work on your upcoming sign project. At The Sign Studio, we add value to your ads ensuring that your graphics bring your marketing campaigns to fruition.

For further information please give us a call at The Sign Studio (818) 843-9200 or send us an e-mail at (818) 843-9200.  

 

Sign Quote
Sign Design Tips

 

Graphic Design in the Sign & Banner World | Los Angeles Sign Company

Topics: Sign Ideas, Sign Graphic Design, Sign & Banner Colors, Graphic Design Colors

Why Your Property Should Comply With New Traffic Regulations

Posted by Julie Ramirez on Mon, Jul 14, 2014 @ 06:07 AM

Why Your Property Should Comply With New Traffic Regulations

Did you know that new U.S. traffic regulations governing the design, size and reflectivity could affect you? The law affects all privately owned property that qualifies as a being open to public travel. Under this category, you will expect shopping centers, condominiums, hotels, restaurants and hospitals among others to be affected by the new regulatory requirements. If your property is found to have violated the new law and that an accident occurs as a result of non-compliance, you could be liable for all the damages.

The amendments on the US code (U.S.C) by the Federal Highway Administration requiring private property to install the right signs has been informed by the fact that property accidents have been on the rise and that fatalities from these accidents have had a serious impact on the lives of the affected persons.

Retroreflective signs that are properly sized and well installed have been found to improve road safety and reduce highway departure crashes. Since the color, and hence retroreflectivity, of the roadway signs fade with time, property owners are now required by law to ensure that their signs are clearly visible, especially during the night.

A recent report by the FHWA reveals that fatalities at night are three times than during the day. The FHWA estimates that there are about 1,200 fatalities annually occurring on property open to public travel and that 20 percent of traffic accidents occur on private property while 21 percent of all accident claims are those that relate to accidents that occur on private property.

What should Private Property Owners do to comply with the new regulations?

Property owners need to conduct a comprehensive inspection to determine if their property complies with the new regulations. Where the color of the signs have faded, do not have the right color, size or design, owners should replace them. Signs with the wrong height or angle should be corrected as well. They should also replace missing, unclear or hidden signs.

The laws shall be applied in their entirety by 2015, meaning that low-grade reflectivity shall still be accepted until then. By complying with the new regulations now, property owners will have spread over the cost of installing the signs. Property owners need to evaluate their signs, identify those that are non-compliant, replace them with compliant signs.

Who can help you comply with the new traffic regulation?

The Sign Studio has experienced staff to help bring all your property signs up to speed with the new traffic regulation. They can inspect your property to ensure that everything is checked, corrected or updated to meet the current standards. Whether your signs have wrong installation height, color or size, the experts will make necessary changes.

After the installation of signs on your private property, they can also help facilitate the inspection by the local authorities for subsequent issuance of citations and certification. Since your property is the largest investment that you may have, you do not want to expose it to irrecoverable risks, and as such, you want to comply fully to ensure you access full limit claims in the event of a loss. If you are all property owners, you will want to minimize your liability as much as possible, and compliance with the new traffic regulation on retroreflectivity is a great way of cushioning yourself from excess liability. If you are not quite sure if your property complies with the regulation, contact, the Sign Studio, a licensed sign company with the knowledge on the new amendments to assess the property and recommend what should be taken, including performing a complete overhaul of the property signs.

For further informaiton on "Why Your Property Should Comply With New Traffic Regulations" please send us an e-mail at info@signstudiola.com or give us a call at (818) 843-9200. 

 

Sign Quote

 

Traffic Signs

Download your California  MUTCD SIgn Poster

Topics: Traffic Signs, Reflective Signs, Property Signs, Regulations Signs, MUTCD Signs, Street Signs

A Comprehensive Review on California Restroom & Bathroom Signs

Posted by Julie Ramirez on Mon, Jul 7, 2014 @ 06:07 AM

ADA Restroom Height Installation ImageLA Signs | A Comprehensive Review on California Restroom & Bathroom Signs

Rules governing California Restroom signs have changed dramatically over time—and today, the state of California requires a restroom to have two signs to help identify each restroom that has been declared open to the public. Although some critics have demonized this as unnecessary repetition that fuels confusion, this regulation can only be understood from a historical perspective and the idea behind this grant sign rule.

Prior to ADA, Sam Genensky, a partially blind man saw the need for restrooms in California to be easily identifiable, especially to people with vision challenges. The idea behind the installation of large pictorial shapes with thick edges was to aid people who suffered from vision impairment so that they could easily identify the facility from a distance.

As such, a 12-inch diameter circle was born to identify a women’s restroom while a triangle with similar measurements was used to identify a men’s restroom. A single-user restroom had a triangular shape imposed on a 12-inch circular shape to show that the restroom could be used by either sex. Another salient feature of the sign was that the color used had to contrast sharply with the color of the door on which they were mounted.

At this point, no writings or pictorials were used, which made many designers to question the clarity of the signs, as they were devoid of things that could make them complete. Consequently, designers added men and women pictograms, and in some cases messages. When the accessibility standards were passed, Braille communication became an additional means of communication. Today, everyone considers this effort the first step toward the success of accessibility of restrooms to everyone in the state of California. Blind people were trained on how to identify signs to avoid the inconveniences and embarrassment that went with getting into a wrong restroom.

After this innovation, California became one of the early adopters of accessibility law. By 1990, the ADA was passed, requiring all the restrooms to be identifiable by way of touch. However, the federal authorities that were charged with the responsibility of implementing the rule never used the signs established by the state of California. The reasoning behind this move was to develop a more robust that could integrate Braille in which the sign was to be affixed adjacent to the door as opposed to being placed on the door as in the California case.

The difference between the California accessibility code and the feds was that it eliminated the need for geometric signs, an argument that has been supported by the fact that the California code served the same purpose as the new federal guidelines in respect of communicating visual and tactic formats. The result was a sharp reaction by the disability community, which insisted on the need to have circles and triangles. First, they argued that they had gotten used to them, and secondly, these symbols were unique to California’s history as the state the pioneered the establishment of accessibility. This explains why the signs were retained, which is the reason California has a double signs that identifies restrooms.

Now, with the above comprehensive coverage of the sign law that applies in California and the entire U.S., it is important to ensure that a restroom open to the public complies with the regulation to limit the liability. To stay on the safe side of the law, ensure to contact an experienced sign professional from around your area to help you place the signs as required by the state and federal agencies responsible for certification and licensing of public restrooms and sanitary facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms.

For further information or if you are looking for in-stock ADA Compliant Restroom or Bathroom signs, pleaes send us an e-mail at info@signstudiola.com or give us a call at (818) 843-9200. 

For further information regarding "A Comprehensive Review on California Restroom & Bathroom Signs", please see the following: 

ADA Information For Small Businesses

Handicap Accessible Parking -   Info Bulletin / Public - Building Code

 

Sign Quote Sign Quote

Topics: Picto, Braille Federal Code Guidelines, California Compliant Restroom Signs, Title 24 Bathroom Signs