I previously suggested that I think good sign design can be summed up in three simple rules:
- Quality Materials and Construction
- Contextual Correctness
- Good Excellence
I still maintain that is true, but there really is a lot of ground covered in those three ideas.
QUALITY MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION
Materials - Entire books could be written on this point (or these two points, if you prefer). In fact, I’m sure there have been written on this. In a future post, maybe I will talk more about types of materials but for now let’s just stick with the quality aspect.
In many cases, the issue of quality is a matter of using the correct material for the situation. As an example, an all-too-common mistake is using a good interior material for an exterior sign. Expanded PVC (Sintra, etc.) is a great material and usually works well for interior AND exterior applications. However, it can tend to be a bit unstable in really harsh weather conditions. Black PVC wouldn’t last too long when exposed to Arizona sun all day long (it would warp after awhile).
Another common mistake is failing to use a good protective laminate for printed, exterior signs can ruin the whole thing. You can use the best substrate, the best vinyl and the highest quality ink, but if you don’t laminate it your hard work plus expensive materials will look terrible in a matter of months.
Then there is the mix and match failure. An example of this occurs when fabricating perforated vinyl for use as part of a vehicle wrap. Perf is expensive stuff and the optically clear laminate that is designed for it is even more expensive. So what do some people do? They skimp on the laminate and end up with a product that covers the window fine, but the customer ends up unable to see out their window!
The take-away here is that, most materials work well when they;re used as intended but using them incorrectly, or not using them at all, results in very costly mistakes and an unhappy customer.
Construction - When it comes to construction, there are so many possibilities for error: bubbles in vinyl, unsquare cuts, poorly welded metal, inaccurate measurements that translate into wrong sizes– to name a few.
Most poor construction is due to employees who either don’t know what they’re doing (training issues) or they don’t care about their work. The solution to employees who don’t care about their work is easy– you can (and should) get rid of them. A person who doesn’t care probably won’t be transformed into a person who DOES care, no matter what you do.
That leaves construction problems that result from workers who aren’t trained. Theoretically, the answer here is easy: just train them. In reality, it isn’t so easy when you consider the time required of them and the person training them. Trying to get the ‘real’ work done usually gets in the way of providing accurate training. Then there is the ‘depth verses breadth’ question. Do you train everyone in each type of sign/graphic medium (thereby limiting the depth of how much each of them are trained). Or do you divide up the mediums and train each employee in only select mediums (limiting the breadth of their training)?
