ARCHIVE: Category Archive for: Signage Tips

5 Things You Didn’t Know About ADA Signage

The term “ADA Signs” is now in widespread use among architects, general contractors, developers, and signage experts. “ADA” stands, of course, for the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the term “ADA Signs” is misunderstood almost as often as it is interpreted correctly. For example: 1. A great many people believe that “ADA Signs” refers to those containing Braille symbols for the benefit of people who are visually impaired. That’s like saying elevators are installed in buildings for the benefit of people who are unable to climb stairs. The claim is true, as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. While signs containing Braille and other raised characters are a highly visible expression of the ADA requirements,

We’ve written in this space about wayfinding signs more than once, but we’re still getting questions about them from business owners, architects, developers and construction industry people. To satisfy their curiosity and give everyone a place to start finding answers on their own, we’ve now compiled a brand new e-book on Wayfinding Signage. It covers such important topics as: What makes wayfinding signage so difficult to do well? Why bother struggling to get wayfinding signage just right? How to take the big first step on any wayfinding signage project. and much more. As experts in wayfinding (and other) signage, we actively enjoy sharing what we know with others. So it was fun for us to compile this easy-to-read e-book, which

How much do you really know about signs and signage? Avid readers of this Metro Sign and Awning blog are probably near-experts in signs and signage, with a detailed understanding of signage technology and an encyclopedic knowledge of signage history. To see how much you know, here’s a quick quiz based on previous posts in this blog. How many answers can you get right? All the answers should be known to you, provided you’ve been reading this blog: Question 1: How many ways can you easily calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) of your signage: a) In comparison with other advertising expenditures. b) In comparison with any other expenditure – a purely financial calculation. c) In comparison with your competitors’

What a game, right? Now you know why I wanted to take a break. This is Part 2 of my blog post, 6 Things I Know About Basketball (and the Sign Business). In case you missed Part 1, find it here. 4. It’s not all fun and games. Taking your play to the next level Of course winning feels good. But even when our team is playing top-notch ball, we know there’s a team out there that could beat us. And particularly with young athletes, we know the competition is going to get tougher each year. As a coach, I have to balance letting the girls enjoy the game and their successes while at the same time pushing them to

Your logo is an essential part of your business identity. Properly designed, it provides an instant – and memorable – point of recognition for who you are and what you do. Having been around the track a few times, we have first-hand experience with both the difficulties and the opportunities inherent in any logo design or redesign project. We’d like to share with you some of what we have learned. Whether you are developing a new logo from scratch or updating one that has outlived its effectiveness, there are at least six things to bear in mind: 1. Before you consider any logo design, be sure you understand your prospective customer or clients as deeply as you can. An effective

Vehicle Wraps: Taking Your Message to the Road Your business vehicles are on the road all day – service and installation calls, business meetings, deliveries. Why not have those vehicles do double duty? Vehicle “wraps,” which display you ad messages on the sides of trucks, vans and even personal automobiles, allow your business to use high-visibility and highly mobile vehicles as a way to reach new prospects and customers effectively and economically. One vehicle can generate thousands of impressions per year. With an average life of five years and available at relatively low cost, a vehicle wrap can produce a favorable impression for just pennies. In fact, compared to more traditional forms of advertising – outdoor signs, television, print and

It’s not easy staying current in the fast-paced world of business signage. That’s why the team at Metro Sign and Awning likes to take time when possible to visit with colleagues and take advantage of trade shows with educational opportunities like the upcoming Digital Signage Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center, March 10-13, 2015. We like to keep abreast of current and future trends in our industry, including advanced display technologies, best practices, and new thoughts on how to meet the needs of our retail customers. This particular show offers the 4,000 or more signage industry professionals who attend plenty of collaborative peer-to-peer “Idea Exchanges,” bolstered by lectures and panel presentations, seminars, and roundtable-format discussions. The schedule this year

Have you discovered the Metro Sign and Awning Industry News page yet? Each week we gather information of interest to those in the sign industry, as well as business people who care about signage. Here are a few recent highlights: “Ghost” Signs Remind Us of Our Heritage Signage is not only an active, vibrant industry. It’s the basis of an historical record that can remind us of where we’ve been as a city, and as a society. Faded signs from bygone eras – so-called “ghost” signs – provide a trail of metaphorical breadcrumbs that can lead us back through the decades to the beginnings of cultural phenomena that now seem fixed in stone. Ghost Signage These fading signs are more

Did you know that Metro Sign and Awning works with many hotel and restaurant owners to create semi-temporary enclosures that add a degree of weather-proofing to their outdoor areas? Properly done, these enclosures extend the outdoor seating season and thereby add revenue for restaurants. They’re able to contain heaters placed in the enclosed area, as necessary, to allow the space to be used quite comfortably during the colder months, here in New England. We’ve also worked with hotels to create enclosures to block the wind and weather around pick up / drop off areas. This makes hotel ingress and egress for guests and visitors far more inviting and hospital. Material Choice Important For many of the enclosures we use “Weathertyte”

One of the most frequently asked questions from prospects and clients alike is fairly basic: “What information do you need in order to work up a reliable price quote on my next project?” Casting about for new blog topics, it occurred to us that answering that question in this open forum would make for a valuable blog post. It would not only educate avid readers about how to speed and simplify the process of obtaining a meaningful price quote, but it would also serve as reference material to which we could point newly interested people who need to know this answer. So let’s start at the very beginning: Step 1: You realize you want some kind of signage. Step 2: