Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs. With so many signs around, are the signs for your business even being seen? When you invest in the signs that you need to advertise for your business, you want to be sure that they are getting noticed, providing potential customers insight about what your company offers and that they will be durable enough to withstand the abuse that Mother Nature puts them through. My blog will provide you with tips and advice that can help you accomplish all of these things for your growing small business. Hopefully, what has been included is enough to prove profitable.
improving the effectiveness of signs for your business
Front- Or Back-Lit Channel: Lighting Up Your Business With The Best Lighting Option
Iker Soler
Channel signs are highly customizable signs that let you do a lot in terms of adding color and flair to the front of your business. That color doesn't do much at night unless the sign is lit up. You have a few options for creating the nighttime lighting on a sign, all of which can be very effective if used correctly. Front-lit and back-lit are the two most common types. Some signs are better off with one particular type of lighting, so if you're in the process of designing a channel sign for your storefront, it's vital that you take the pros and cons of each into account.
Backlighting Effects Letter Thickness and Font
Backlighting a channel sign means the sign itself has an opaque front, usually made of metal, with a transparent back that allows lights inside each letter in the sign to shine on the supporting wall, creating a glow around each letter. This is a very elegant style of lighting, but the halo formed by the light (and this method is sometimes called halo lighting) can affect how thick you make the letters in your sign. Letters that are too thick may not be as easily visible and distinguishable with backlighting because the halo can obscure some details if the lights are too bright. Plus, thick letters don't allow for much of a halo around internal spaces, like that inner triangle in a capital letter A. That makes the sign look rather messy. If you're using thinner lettering, though, in a font that is easy to read, backlighting can be very nice.
Front-Lit Signs Might Show Damage More Easily
Front-lit signs have the opaque and transparent sides of the letter reversed. The metal side is the backing, while the front is made of a material like plexiglass. The illumination shines out from the front of the letter. This style is very easy to read and lets you use many different colors for the plexiglass front. However, having the front-lit up means that any scratches or dirt could be seen more easily by customers. If you're going to have front-lit letters – which can be thick or thin, by the way – arrange to clean them often and keep an eye out for visible damage.
You Can Combine the Two
It is possible to combine the two and have a sign where the letters are front-lit but also have a light halo. This can be a great compromise for signs where you really want to have backlighting but also want to use thicker letters. You can also use different colors for the lighting to create contrast that's more eye-catching than, say, a blue front-lit letter with a white halo.
Lighting, font, letter size – all of these and more work together to form a sign that draws in customers and that looks great. To learn more about your options, contact a local channel letter sign design service.
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