When people enter a space, signage is sending them a message, introducing them to the brand, setting expectations, and communicating with professionalism, quality, and honesty of the place. Moreover, customized signage helps people figure out where they are and provides them with a homely feeling. However, it is often taken for granted, but it has a massive impact on how we experience the world. From the age-old signboard to the highly engineered visual communication systems in modern commercial spaces, signs are more than just labels.
How Signage Communicates Before Your Brand Says a Word
When someone enters a space, their mind starts asking questions. Where am I? Where do I need to go? And what is expected of me here? Premium signage is that instant voice that answers these questions and goes to work without a single word being spoken out loud.
In addition, well-designed signage is a sense of calmness and control, yet the ugly and unclear signage leads to confusion and uncertainty; even if you don’t know that you’re noticing it. Coming from the moment you walk in the door, the quality of a sign determines how a building feels, and that’s why it should be given serious attention.
What Signage Really Does: More Than Signs and Directions
When it comes to signage, most of us consider it to be a series of separate signs fixed to walls, but it is a very cohesive system. The goal of a signage system is to direct people through a space with intuitive clarity, and it does it through a combination of visual hierarchy, messaging, placement, and consistency.
Efficient and professionally designed signs consider the following:
- Speaking of a signage system, it’s not just about posting signs, it’s about understanding how people move through a given environment.
- From where they make decisions to the kind of information they need at each stage.
- Branding and the design of a space are considered to become a necessary element of any brand plan.
Thus, an effective signage system fuses together signs, environmental graphics, way-finding, and spatial planning and is no doubt the backbone of how people perceive the world.
The Three Roles Every Effective Signage System Must Fulfill
There are three roles signage must fulfill: guiding, informing and reinforcing.
- Guide
Guiding people through a space is one of the primary functions of signage; it should be obvious where you’re going but not feel forced, with intuitive directional signs and wayfinding elements.
- Inform
At decision points, signage must provide the right information in a clear manner so that it doesn’t overwhelm or take the user off track. Basically, they need just the right amount of info at the right time.
- Reinforce
Each sign also contributes to how we perceive a brand, fonts, colors, materials, and even tone should all be part of a cohesive brand picture, so that the overall experience feels seamless.
When Signage Creates Confusion Instead of Connection
Signage can be a source of confusion rather than a point of connection. When it is not clear, people are left to second guess themselves and come to a standstill. This in turn takes up the time of employees whose job is to be of assistance. And even for those who do make their way through, there is often a lingering doubt as to whether they have arrived at the proper destination.
Signs that consistently cause problems are the following:
- Those that are laid out in a confusing manner and don’t follow the conventional flow of logic.
- Those that don’t mirror their exterior message.
- Placed too far from the point of decision-making.
- Badly designed typography.
- Don’t accommodate the needs of people who have mobility issues.
As time passes, these problems fester in the background, eroding the brand’s efficiency and goodwill. The longer they go unaddressed, the harder they become to put right.
When Signage and Architecture Work as One
In the case of signage there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, something that works beautifully in one setting can completely fall apart in another.
For instance:
- Healthcare industry, where signs need to be soothing, reassuring and above all else, calm.
- In corporate spaces, signs are about conveying professionalism, brands, and authority.
- Retail and mixed-use environments have different requirements; here signs need to be efficient, yet able to draw attention.
It’s this ability to understand these differences that set generic signs apart from truly customized ones.
The Design Principles Behind Signage People Instinctively Follow
When designing a great signage system, we’re following the way people naturally think and move, because what’s the point of signage if people don’t know what to do. Well-known principles are applied to every project, yet effective signage is consistent in its use of those principles.
Including:
- Clear visual hierarchies ensure that the most important information is seen first.
- Legibility at a distance means that signs are readable even when people are moving.
- Consistency is key to reducing cognitive load.
- Strategic placement is at natural pause and decision points.
When we get these principles right, the result is intuitive signage that’s second nature.
How NAI Signs Creates Signage That Works With Its Space
When it comes to signage, NAI Signs think about it as a total system. We are not satisfied with guesswork and focus on building signage that is robust and long-lasting. Our signage must be perfectly integrated into the building’s architecture and interiors, working in harmony with both. We also make sure that the brand’s identity and signage are completely aligned.
From Arrival to Exit: How Signs Support the Entire Journey
When you come to a place:
- The exterior signs tell you you’ve arrived.
- Entry signs lay out the rules of the house.
- Directional signs steer you in the right direction.
- Identification signs confirm that you’ve found what you were looking for.
- Exit signs send you off.
When all the signs are in place, it’s no coincidence that the whole experience becomes logical and coherent.
Concluding It All
When discussing your space, signage isn’t just about throwing up a few signs on the walls. It’s a complex system that can completely change how your environment is perceived. From a design perspective, an exceptional signage system can guide, inform, and enforce your brand, and can make spaces feel intuitive, inviting and polished, and NAI Signs has been working hard to provide that. If you want to rethink how your space communicates, we’d love to help.