Advice for Newbies (not signmakers)

[Martin Pearson]

Just logos & branding John ? Nothing about signs in general.

I could really go off at a tangent with this one :lol1: :lol1:

Apart from obvious things like trying to keep things simple, might be worth mentioning the price increases when you start adding colours which will affect signs, business cards, letterheads etc etc.

If your going to have a chat about file types & colour might be worth having that info on a printout for them to take away for future reference.

[Colin Crabb]

After todays meeting with a client, drop in somewhere that Microsoft word doesn’t produce print ready artwork lol!

Agree with Martin, tiz a good idea to have some print outs for them to take away (which you can brand with your own logo!)

[Richard]

I’d also mention that it’s often useful to have solid/spot colour (and/or single colour) versions of their logo, suitable for both light and dark backgrounds, designed alongside the the nasty web version with all its tints, gradients, highlights and transparency (and possibly even animation!).

[David Hammond]

Maybe show examples.

Logos everyone knows, distort them in photshop and see if people can recognise them, or show it for a split second, see who can tell what it was.

Then do the same with not so good designs. What does this company do? Kind of questions. Seeing is believing and involving the audience keeps their attention, rather than just sat listening.

Coca cola is always a good start.

[John Harding]

Thanks all for the replies –

Martin I dont want to be sign specific more general to starting up but of course a lot of what we do lends itself to that end ie creating logos and branding which is used elsewhere not just on signs.

Colin yes i plan to say what a customers expectations can be for a low res image taken from a web site 😀

Richard Re colour I know what your saying but may be too technical I will think about that.

David maybe a few examples good and bad, any suggestions for famous bad ones?

Keep the suggestions coming people, what simple things generally did you find out later which you wished you knew at the beginning?

John

[Martin Pearson]

John, I’m not suggesting you be sign specific but how many times have you come across a new business that has spent a fortune setting up & has no money left for any signs so get something cheap & nasty which doesn’t do their image any good at all.
Think it is worth mentioning that signage should be something any start up business budgets for in their business plan.

[Colin Crabb]

John – good example for you on the Microsoft word front, my ‘customer-who-shall-remain-nameless’, took a clip art image from word template service, 46kb file size.
Fine for there home made business cards and couldn’t understand that it would not increase insize to produce a van sign some 40" wide – I ended up printing a section to scale on my A3 lazer to show the HUGE pixels.
I ended up recreating a similar logo to avoid any copyright issues at graphic design rate to the customer.