Your shop sign has one job
To be read from the other side of the road, by somebody who is not looking for you.
The short version
Name and trade, as large as the fascia allows, in two colours with strong contrast. Keep the window mostly clear - what people can see inside sells better than anything you print on the glass.
A shop sign is the only piece of advertising that works on people who were not thinking about you at all. Somebody walking to somewhere else passes your door, reads the fascia in about a second, and either files you away as “there is a bike shop on that corner” or does not.
That one second is the brief, and it is close to the van lettering brief for the same reason: the reader did not choose to read it.
The fascia
Two things, and the second one is optional if your name says it: your business name, and your trade.
Everything else that gets put on fascias - phone numbers, web addresses, opening hours, a list of services - is either unreadable at that distance or answers a question nobody standing on the pavement is asking. Somebody who can see your door does not need your phone number. They need to know what you are.
Size
Fill the fascia. The commonest mistake is a sign designed on a screen, where it looks balanced, and then applied to a board where it reads as timid with a wide margin of empty panel around it. The letters should come close to the top and bottom of the board.
Contrast, and only two colours
Light on dark or dark on light. Dark green with cream, near-black with white, deep blue with pale grey - all work. Mid-tone on mid-tone does not, and neither does a colour on a colour of similar weight, however good it looks in the file.
The window is not a poster site
The most valuable thing a shop window does is let people see in. A lit interior with people in it is the strongest signal a shop can send, and every square foot of vinyl you add takes some of that away.
So keep window graphics to the edges and the bottom, and keep the middle clear at eye height. What is worth putting on glass:
- Your opening hours, near the door, at eye height. This is the single most useful thing on any shopfront and the most commonly missing.
- What you do, if the fascia is small or set high - a line of vinyl along the bottom of the glass.
- Whether you are open now - a sign that flips, not a permanent one.
- Card and payment marks, small, near the door.
What is not worth it: full-window frosting on a shop that sells things, long lists of services, seasonal promotions that stay up until they are three months out of date, and anything printed on paper and taped to the inside of the glass, which ages a shopfront faster than anything else you can do to it.
Clear glass at eye height
Full frosting or full-window vinyl
Hours by the door
A phone number on the fascia
Two colours, strong contrast
Three colours at similar weight
Lettering filling the fascia
A small sign floating on a big board
Lit at night
An unlit fascia on a dark street
Light
A sign nobody can read after four in the afternoon in winter is working for half the day. You do not necessarily need an illuminated sign - a well-lit interior throwing light onto the fascia, or a couple of downlights above the board, does most of the job at a fraction of the cost and looks less like a takeaway.
If you do go for illumination, individually lit letters generally look better and last longer than a lightbox, and are less likely to end up with one dead patch nobody gets round to fixing.
Check the rules before you order anything
This is the part that catches people out, and it is worth an afternoon.
- Your landlord or lease may specify what can go on the fascia, and often forbids drilling into certain surfaces.
- Local planning rules can restrict size, projection, materials and illumination - particularly on listed buildings or in conservation areas, where the rules are strict and enforced.
- Projecting signs, the ones that stick out at right angles, usually have their own separate permission.
- A-boards on the pavement are often licensed, sometimes banned outright, and are the most common thing a local authority will ask a business to remove.
Try this now
Ring your local planning department and describe what you want before you commission it. It is a ten-minute call, they answer this question constantly, and it is considerably cheaper than taking a sign down.
A few common questions.
Do I need planning permission for a shop sign?
Often yes, and it depends on size, whether it is illuminated, whether it projects, and what the building is. Listed buildings and conservation areas have tighter rules. Ask your local planning department before ordering - the answer is usually quick and the consequences of guessing wrong are not.
What should be on a shop sign?
Your business name and your trade, filling the fascia, in two strongly contrasting colours. Phone numbers and web addresses do not belong there - somebody close enough to read them is close enough to walk in.
Should I cover the window in vinyl?
Keep the middle clear at eye height. Being able to see into a lit shop with people in it does more for you than anything printed on the glass. Use the edges and the bottom for hours and a line about what you do.
How much does a shop sign cost?
It varies enormously with size, material and whether it is lit - flat vinyl lettering applied to an existing board is the cheap end, built-up illuminated letters the expensive one. As with a van, the design file is a separate cost from the making, and once it exists it can be reused on window vinyl, an A-board and your printed work without being redrawn.
