Do People Still Read Signs? Busting the Myth!

In the world today, everyone has multiple different demands on their attention from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. Texts, emails, social media notifications, crying kids, jumping dogs, the TV in the background, the music on the bus– you have to be extremely selective about what you give your focus to! The fact that this information influx exists has led to the popular belief that no one actually reads signs anymore today, thereby rendering signage an unnecessary expense for businesses.

Is this urban legend true? If you’ve ever had a customer try to pull a locked door open when the “Sorry, we’re closed” sign is inches from their nose, you might be inclined to believe that it is. However, this isn’t actually the case. Signs that are well-designed, high-quality, and engaging will always have the ability to catch and hold the attention of potential customers. If you make it easy and worthwhile for them, people will pay attention to your signs– and to your business! Here’s how to do it.

Pay Attention to Finishes

Excessive glare on a sign can make it not only difficult to read, but often painful to look at, so reducing the reflectiveness of your sign is always a good place to start!

Try to avoid high shine finishes for your sign and instead choose something more on the matte side that will absorb light and reduce glare. This will ensure that people aren’t reflexively turning away from your sign to protect their eyes!

Employ Good Contrast

If the color of the background of your sign and the color of the text are too similar to each other, it can make it extremely difficult to read, especially for people who might have visual challenges.

Employing high levels of contrast when designing your sign will work to your advantage! Choosing light and dark colors that will stand out against each other will make it much easier to make out what your sign is saying, even from a far distance.

Choose Fonts Carefully

The font you choose can say a lot about your business and convey lots of different messages to potential customers and people who pass by on the street. However, the font you choose can also make it challenging to make out exactly what your sign says in the first place.

Take your choice of fonts very seriously when you’re designing your signage. Try to look at it in several different lights and from far away as well as up close. When it comes down to it, remember that simpler is better for fonts on signs. Too many flourishes, curls, or strangely shaped letters can just discourage people from taking the time to read your sign!

Mount in the Right Spot

If you’re walking along the street, are you going to take the extra time to stop and read a sign that is positioned in an inconvenient spot? Probably not, and neither will potential customers who walk past your signs on a day-to-day basis. The place you choose to mount your sign is just as important as the design of the sign itself.

Ensure that there are no objects like trees or lampposts blocking your sign from view, and try to ensure that it’s highly visible from many different locations. This will encourage as many people as possible to take a few seconds to read your sign!

Optimize for Drivers

If you’re going to have signs located near a roadside, you need to take into account that most of the people who will see it are going to be distracted by their driving, and you need to put in more thought and effort to ensure that the sign is easy to read from the road.

Most of the driver’s focus will be in their central vision, or essentially, the road. Their fringe vision is about thirty to forty-five degrees to either side, and a large sign with bright colors placed in this part of a driver’s field of view will be the easiest for them to read and absorb. Once you get too far towards ninety degrees, you’re in the driver’s peripheral vision, and it’s much harder for them to read your sign. Also take into account that a driver’s ability to read a sign decreases with speed and at night!

If you can keep these helpful pointers in mind, you will be able to create great, highly readable signs that will encourage even the most distracted passerby to stop and take a look! If you need more help planning out the signage for your business, Bartush Signs can help! We are the premier display signage company in Orwigsburg, PA. Contact us today to get started