Southern California Sign Blog

Los Angeles Sign Company | The Best Sign & Banner Design Fonts

Posted by Julie Ramirez on Wed, Nov 6, 2013 @ 06:11 AM

Los Angeles Sign Company | The Best Sign & Banner Design Fonts

Arial Black
Arial Black is one of the most common fonts to use on a banner.
It’s plain, basic block lettering, and it’s very easy to read. If you have a
lot of words or letters to fit on a small banner, it might not work as well as…

Impact
Impact. This is a very bold block lettering font, but it is much narrower
left to right than Arial Black. It’s still one of the best fonts for banners,
but it lets you squeeze a little more information onto your banner. (See how we
were able to include the area code, even at the same font size as the Arial
Black banner?)

Cooper Black
Cooper Black is a good compromise between friendly and professional, so it
works well for a small business banner font. It’s got very big bold letters
like Arial Black, but it’s more rounded. Not everyone likes the way the numbers
are offset, though.

Arial
Arial and Times New Roman are good if you have several lines of less
important text on your banner. Try to use a bolder banner font for your
headline, then use these fonts for the less-important details. As you can see
here, Arial is a little narrow to use for headline text.

Save Times New Roman for longer paragraphs. If you are including bullets or short
phrases on your banner, Arial is usually a little easier to read because of its clean appearance.

Cancun is another very big, bold font that’s good for banner headlines. It
only allows you to type in uppercase, so reserve it for short words or phrases.
It has a tropical beachy feel that’s good for celebrations or sale banners.

Last but not least, Stencil is a great font for bold headlines. It gives a
very strong, military feel to a banner and has all capital letters like Cancun.

Sign Banner Fonts Sign Banner Font

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 






Worst fonts for banners

Some fonts look great on stationery, but they just don’t work for larger formats.
Here are some of the top fonts to avoid when designing a banner:

Worst Sign & Banner Fonts

 

If you have any questions or need assistance with anything, please give us a call at The
Sign Studio
(818) 843-9200 or send us an e-mail at info@signstudiola.com. From Concept to
Finish The Sign Studio is here for you – On time and on budget!

 

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NEED QUOTE

Vinyl Banner             Adhesive Vinyl                                          Indoor Stands
Banner Blockout       Adhesive Clear / Translucent                      Outdoor Stands
Banner Backlit          Adhesive Window Perf                               Lightbox
Mesh / Smooth         Vehicle Graphics /Wall Graphics                 Sidewalk Signs
Window Static Cling  Floor Graphics                                              
Premium Vinyls                                                                           Signicades
Paper Posters            Reflective Vinyls                                          Plasticades
Scrim Banner            Metallics /Gold / Silver                                 Retractable
Printable Fabrics        Chalk Vinyls                                                Post & Panel Signs
Photo Paper                                                                                Valet Parking Signs
Overlaminates                                                                            Simpo Sign Frames
                                                                                                 Pedistal Signs
                                                                                                 Wind Spinners
                                                                                                  Real Estate Frames
                                                                                                  Trade Show Displays

RIGID SIGNS
Foamcore
Coroplast
PVC Board
OTHER SIGNS
ADA Signs -  Restroom / Handicap  
Parking Signs
Regulatory Signs
Construction Signs
Acrylic Displays
Golf Signs
Commercial Signs
Dimensional Letters
Digital Imaging Signs
Electrical Signs

GEMINI Products
Vista Systems 
Signicade/Plasticade Distributor

The Sign Studio also provides maintenance and service calls
on all signs.  We proved service to the
following areas:

Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Studio City, Century
City, Santa Monica, Culver City, Burbank, Pasadena, Glendale, Tarzana, Woodland
Hills, Anaheim, Arcadia, Alhambra, City of Duarte, West Covina, El Monte,
Toluca Lake, Universal City, La Crescenta, Whittier, Buena Park, San Fernando,
La Canada, Cerritos, City of Lakewood, Glendora, Compton, Long Beach, San Fernando, Sylmar      

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Topics: Banner & Sign Business in LA, Sign & Banner Fonts, Sign & Banner Design

Pasadena & Glendale Sign Co | Interested in the history of Sign Fonts?

Posted by Julie and Chris Ramirez on Wed, Jul 10, 2013 @ 06:07 AM

Pasadena & Glendale Sign Co. | Interested in the history of Sign Fonts?

History of Popular Fonts Used for Signs

“What’s the best font to use on a sign?”

It’s a question that The Sign Studio team members face frequently. While there is no one perfect answer for every situation, there are some fonts that have endured through the years to become staples in visual communications, DIN 1451, Frutiger, Gill Sans and Helvetica are classic fonts that have helped countless people reach their destinations throughout the decades.

DIN 1451 isn’t a promising name for a good communicator, but it has been used since the 1930s for scientific and traffic signs. The name is an acronym for the German Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization). In 1936 the German Standard Committee named DIN 1451 the official typeface for technology, administration, engineering, traffic and business. The medium version of this font was popular with graphic designers in the 1980’s and today it is frequently used for identification on vehicles and as cast metal lettering for street and building signage.

Frutiger is a typeface commissioned in 1968 by the Charles De Gaulle International Airport for new directional signs. Type designer Adrian Frutiger was told to create a modern font that had excellent visibility at various angles, sizes and distances. This highly legible font with a warm personality is a favorite in the advertising industry. In 2008 it was the fifth best-selling typeface of the Linotype foundry. It is used throughout the public transit network in Norway since the 1980s.

In 1929 Eric Gill was commissioned to produce Gill Sans for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). It was first presented in a single uppercase weight and became very popular immediately. It was the standard typeface for all LNER posters, locomotive nameplates, station signage and even the menu on the dining cars. More recently, the BBC adopted Gill Sans for its corporate typeface in 1997. The British Government formally adopted Gill Sans as its standard typeface for use in all communications and logos in 2003.

Helvetica is another classic font, so popular it even inspired its own film. The U.S. Government uses Helvetica for everything from federal tax forms to NASA’s Space Shuttle orbiter. It is also used for the U.S. television rating system. Helvetica was adopted as the official font for all of New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1989. The Chicago Transit Authority uses Helvetica for the city’s elevated train system and Philadelphia’s SEPTA uses it exclusively for all signage.

To learn more about the history of classic fonts, visit this excellent post from the Live Well Collaborative.

If you have any questions or need assistance with anything, please give us a call at The Sign Studio (818) 843-9200 or send us an e-mail at info@signstudiola.com.

Topics: Sign Design, Pasadena & Glendale Sign Company, Sign & Banner Fonts