sign design course recommendations?

[Kevin Flowers]

Del
don’t know of any courses but you may find this book helpful re-techniques, rules etc to sign design

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Layo … 091138068X

Kev

[Simon Worrall]

Ill second that Kev.
It contains all you need to know in a very few pages.

[Jon Marshall]

I found it a little dated although the basic rules are obviously there. Combine that with analysing adverts and signs everywhere you look and you will develop a style. I also save any good things I see to an Ideas folder for inspiration.

[Del Blanchard]

I appreciate your suggestions. I will take a look at it. I want to learn the shading technics, ect…..basicly I want to learn design for large format digital prints.

[PETER SUNG]

Are you more so interested in learning how to become a more skilled graphic designer? or specifically "sign-related" design?.

That book looks really dated, if you google enough sign images you’ll get a great indication of what looks good and what doesn’t.

I tend to photoshop a lot of my previews for clients, it gives them and yourself a great perception of the size and impact it will have in reality. Get in the habit of photographing your clients space and photoshopping the proposed ideas before
committing to a definite color or style.

Here is a book i highly reccommend for sign ideas, http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Sign-Design … 489444481X it also comes with a free cd-rom of all the photos in the book, I was silly enough to walk out of the shop without checking for the cd-rom, i contacted the PIE Books in japan via email, and was sent a replacement cd-rom within a week and even received an apology. (the japanese are really polite!).

[Del Blanchard]

Thank you Peter. I will take a look at the book you suggested. I want to become a better graphic designer. I want to go from designing flat colour design for vinyl to the 3d type designing for digital printing. I noticed there are quite a few You Tube videos on designing specific shapes ect…..but I also want some of the theory to go with it.

[PETER SUNG]

Del Blanchard wrote:
> Thank you Peter. I will take a look at the book you suggested. I want to become a
> better graphic designer. I want to go from designing flat colour design for vinyl
> to the 3d type designing for digital printing. I noticed there are quite a few You
> Tube videos on designing specific shapes ect…..but I also want some of the theory
> to go with it.

Hi Del, I come from a design background, I was graphic designer and web designer before i even worked with signs. If you have any questions i’d be happy to help! which software are you using at the moment?

I find even though you can get some really interesting designs happening with gradients and 3d/images etc. the traditional bold lettering tends to still stand out more from a signage perspective. The tricky part about signage is it needs to be seen and recognized from a fair distance away… I guess with vehicle graphics etc, it does tend to give you a bit more to play with.

[Del Blanchard]

I use inkscape, I have just downloaded gimp as well. There are hundreds of tutorials on these programs on you tube, so I am going to be going through them one at a time and I am also going to find online courses for graphic design theory.
I agree with you that signs are in their own class of design and I have been in the business for 30 years now and have a pretty good idea of good design but as an example…there is a nail/hair shop up the street that has a sign that is nothing more than econo grade diabond with a digital print on it with the 3d effect, shiny chrome letters with light bulbs ect…..there seems to be alot of people going into business on a shoestring budget and when you give them a quote for a real sign they get real quiet and go shopping for the absolute cheapest piece of crap they can get away with…usually a digital print on foamex or correx or cheap econo diabond. I guess it’s time to move with the times and learn how to make this type of signage. It seems to be the trend to use chaotic confused graphics blended with pictures on a digital print to put on their vans, or even their shop fronts.

Cheap is the new standard..so I have to be able to compete

[David Hammond]

We too have adjusted to accomodate these lower budget customers.

Low budget doesnt have to mean a rubbish design though, just simplify it.

We installed a sign last weekend for a beauty salon, white cut vinyl text, black composite and a stand of circle with full colour logo. It made us a reasonable profit, for very little effort, and it wasnt screaming urgent so did it at our leisure.

[Hugh Potter]

you will always get customers with low budgets, As David says, you just need to take what they have and offer them two choices, an all singing all dancing (which they expect but haven’t the budget for) and a cheaper, more simplified version that they can afford and is more likely to win you some work.

one of my biggest annoyances is those customers – usually hair salons, estate agents, beauty salons and the like, who spend £20k on fancy chairs, desks and equipment inside, then with 3 days before opening, and a huge amount of urgency, they expect you to produce a great sign on the £300 they have left of their set-up budget.. this is why many of these businesses end up with hoarding grade composite and simple flat signage / print.. you can’t do much else when they come to you, cap in hand with barely enough to cover the cost of a basic sign, let alone make you a decent profit for the hassle a high street shop sign produces.

[Phill Fenton]

I’m a great believer in designing it in black and white first. Only add the colour and bells and whistles later once the basic layout looks right. No amount of fancy colours and effects can make a poor layout look good. This is why Mike Stevens book "Mastering Layout" is as relevant to day as it was back when it was first published. The rules he taught back then (the importance of margin spaces, negative space, prioritising text etc.) are just as relevant today.

[David Mitchell]

Just ordered the mike stevens book , hoopefully i can learn from it 🙂