When you’re planning and designing the signage for a storefront, office, or any other physical location for your business, you’ll need to consider both indoor and outdoor signs! Both are very necessary for the success of your business, and while you can get by with using the same types and designs for some of your interior and exterior signage, a lot of things about these two different types of signs will need to be different in order to be working to their best advantage. Want to know the differences? Keep reading below to find out!
Accessibility
The absolute most important thing for both your indoor and outdoor signage is that they be easy to see and read for the grand majority of people. If you have a sign that no one can see or make out, it’s not doing its job very well!
Accessibility is a bit different for outdoor signage, because you have to consider everyone who might pass it, and the different times of day that they’ll see it in. A sign has to be visible to both drivers and pedestrians, and it has to be clear and legible in all sorts of light, including the glare of sundown and nighttime darkness.
Indoors, accessibility is a bit easier. You’ll still want your signage to be placed in an easy-to-see area and to have fonts, colors, and images that are distinct and easy to read, even from a distance or with poor eyesight, but you don’t have to consider as many different factors!
Durability
Think about the main sources of wear and tear that your signs will undergo in the area where you decide to place them. You’ll want to choose sign types that are going to be resistant to those types of damage!
Outdoor signs, for example, absolutely must be waterproof, and if you live in a cold climate, it’s best to choose sign types without a lot of depressions where ice and snow can collect. Indoor signs, on the other hand, can be bumped and scratched if they’re low enough to be in contact with passersby, and depending on your business, might be prone to things like stains from wayward pieces of food! Think about these things while you’re choosing your sign type, and you’ll thank yourself later.
Sun Exposure
Sun exposure is obviously something that you need to consider for your outdoor signage. Your colors will fade over time no matter what, but choosing UV resistant materials and sign types that aren’t prone to drying and cracking will help you to slow and prevent this process.
However, indoor signs can be vulnerable to sun damage, too! Over the course of a normal day, track the amount of sunlight you get through your windows, and see if it’s ever particularly intense in an area where you’re planning to place an indoor sign. If it is, it might be wise to choose sun-resistant signage types, or to consider moving your placement!
Subject Matter and Audience
When you place a sign inside your establishment versus outside of it, you’re advertising your business to two completely different groups of people, and you need to take this into account when planning your signage! Your outdoor signs’ main functions are to inform people of where your business is located and what you do. You’re speaking, figuratively, to people who are passing by and might not know about you, and inviting them to come in. You’re also speaking to people who are in the area with the express purpose of visiting your location, and letting them know where to find you!
Once a person steps inside, they become a different audience, and the way you set up your signage should change accordingly. Someone who’s inside your establishment needs to know more details about who you are and what you can do for them, and they’ll be interested in things like sales and promotions more than an outdoor audience. They’ll also need signs to help them navigate the area, like finding an item or knowing where to place an order or pay.
There are some important factors to take into account when you’re planning your indoor and outdoor signage, but once you know what to consider, the process is simple and easy! It’s even more so when you work with Bartush Signs, the premier custom signage provider in Orwigsburg, PA. You can contact us here for more information or to discuss your upcoming signage project!
