Identify, Communicate, create the Image you desire.
Signs must be memorable to help a
business succeed. As an example, Dr. Brad Boeke
recently hired us to design a new sign and logo to replace
a sign we built for him 10 years ago; he was changing his
business name. He told us “I couldn’t remember
your company’s name but I remembered the logo – the brush
going through the letters – and I remembered the
distinctive letter style.” Obviously the work we
put into our own design paid off.
However, sign design involves many
more details than a good looking letterhead does.
Sign thickness,
minimum stroke, construction materials, lighting choices
and colors (day and night), 3-D paint options, and
installation requirements all must be considered to make a
sign "work." These considerations are detailed in
this website.
Don't overlook the message, the size,
and the impact of your sign compared to other signs around
it. Remember that you are competing for attention.
Electronic Message Centers cost a lot of money, but they achieve tremendous results.
Rather than purchase a larger, blank, rectangular message center and display your name and all other information on it, consider incorporating signage that constantly displays the messages you want to constantly display. It will cost less, and look better!
For pylon signs or pole signs a single cabinet encompassing the pole, rather than two displays, one welded to each side of a pole, is much more preferable.
When deciding on
letter colors consider which direction the sign will face.
Shadows from building elements and letters/raceways can
dramatically affect the daytime readability of a sign.
Borders make signs more readable...quicker. The single exception to this rule is electronic message centers where the entire face lights in color; but if your message only contains wording and the background is blank, project a lighted border.
A second color in a sign's lettering increases retention.
Signs and logos that help
businesses succeed are not an accident. The
Small Business Development Center (one page up) has also
determined that poor sign design causes 89% of business
failures.
"Jim's Place" may be the name of your
business, but as a sign it will do NOTHING to attract new
customers! What does the business do?
How many major retailers can you
think of that don't have a logo or incorporate a
distinctive letter style, or both? Something to help
people remember them.
If
you are concerned at all that the signs you are
currently developing might not help your business to
succeed we have a staff of design personnel and artists
with many years of experience, our IMAGEKRAFTERS™ Design/Marketing Team, who can work
with you to develop a successful sign.
We can help so long
as your landlord and the City understand the importance of
good signs and allow you to install signs that will help
your business. Unfortunately this isn't always true.
Choose your location(s) wisely (and receive your
landlord's approval of your signs package BEFORE you
sign your lease.)
City Signs Ordinances, and Landlord Lease Restrictions,
can doom a business.
We have lots of experience. We
can help you design signs that will meet City and
Landlord sign restrictions, and your needs.
Most City Sign Ordinances can be accessed by visiting our "Permits
& Approvals" page after accessing our "Installation
& Service" page
if you care to learn about them without contacting us. However we have worked with them for so long we know most
of them by heart.
Because every member of the Watson
Family has a University business degree our education and
experience causes us to look at the sign business
differently than most. The principal owner of Signs
Manufacturing formed several successful businesses for
large and small corporations and was heavily involved in
the marketing and advertising necessary to make a business
successful prior to starting Signs Manufacturing with the
Family.
He saw an opportunity to build a sign
company to serve local and regional businesses that
understood marketing issues, a huge void even today, to
help customers become successful.
We understand what it takes to make a
business successful, so we develop “looks” and processes
that benefit our customers by giving them continuously
better, more productive signs at continuously lower
prices.
Design & Marketing assistance is
usually free* with a sign purchase.
Sign Design Safety
Issues
Signs that are too small to be read easily under existing driving conditions
cause traffic congestion and accidents, in addition to not helping a
business become successful. Carefully examine our
Letter Visibility charts listed under the
Design & Marketing page.
Monument signs can potentially block traffic visibility and cause accidents
at driveways and intersections. Moving them away from the street makes
them more dangerous and less effective (above) unless they are significantly
larger.
Externally lighted signs cause traffic congestion and accidents on dark or
rainy days, and at night according to Penn State studies.
Monument signs, because of their smaller lettering when compared to pole
signs and pylon signs, cause traffic congestion and accidents, verified by a
different Penn State study.
An excellent place to learn about the critical,
mechanical, aspects of sign design necessary for a
safe and successful sign is at
www.usscfoundation.org/USSCGuidelineStandards.pdf.
It would be nice if cities would read this before creating
sign ordinances; there would be less congestion and fewer
accidents in business districts. Businesses in the City would be more
successful, also!
Electrical Sign Design Safety
Issues
For consumer protection, it is a criminal offense in Texas for a unlicensed individual to design an
electrical sign, or an electrical system. A licensed Master Sign Electrician or
Master Electrician is required, or a design company approved by statute,
regardless of whether the signs was manufactured within or outside of Texas. We have both
Masters design our signs. Our State of Texas Electrical
and Sign Masters License numbers are: 00002753
and 00007305.
It is also an offense to subcontract the design work to an unlicensed person, firm or
corporation.
Listed Signs
The National Electric
Code (NEC) and the State of Texas require that all electrical signs be listed
(tested and labeled.)
ALL cities (and the
State of Texas) adopt the National Electric Code as part of their laws. A
few cities allow their inspectors to approve an individual sign, but not many!
Underwriter's Laboratory is the premier national listing organizations and almost EVERYTHING
electrical is tested by them.
There are only 126 sign companies in all of Texas listed
by U.L. There are many that pretend to be!
Our signs are U. L.
Listed. (File #UXYT.E149959)
Underwriter’s
Laboratory does NOT judge the appearance, appeal, or the
longevity of a product.
This is why our many
years of experience serving international, national,
regional and local customers, and our investment so that
we can apply the knowledge we’ve gained, will give you a
superior product which will impress your customers for
years to come.
Electric Sign
Authority Listed Signs
Good signs require more than sound
mechanical and electrical design.
While Underwriter's
Laboratory and other listing companies test and approve
mechanical, electrical, and installation aspects of sign
manufacturing, only the Electric Sign Authority (ESA)
supervises the design, marketing appeal, appearance, and
longevity of signs.
Look for the Electric
Signs Authority (ESA) Listing Label (right) in the
advertising of Sign Companies committed to providing their
customers with a better advertising and marketing product
that will look good for years.
Our ESA Listing number is: ESA107474.
Discover how we make signs to last;
including the use of CNC manufacturing, rust-proof metal,
structural-steel frames, high-end automotive paint,
high-impact plastics, and most importantly, sophisticated protective coatings.
All our signs include these many hidden features, critically important to you but often ignored by competitors to lower their cost. We even add self-cleaning properties.
We champion brighter, energy-saving
signs solutions that save customers money while protecting our
environment. No matter
what type of signs you are considering, please explore
our "Lighting Choices" tab for that product, with its own
"Energy Savings" tab. Click on our
"EnergyStar Signs™" tab
on the
"Sign-Types" page to view a comparison of energy
consumption for all types of electrical signs.
EnergyStar Signs™
We champion
energy-saving signs solutions that save our customers
money while
protecting our environment. No matter
what type of signs you are considering, please explore our "Lighting Choices"
tab for that product, with its own "Energy Savings" tab. In fact many of our unique sign designs can easily and efficiently be Solar Powered! Click on our "EnergyStar Signs™" tab to the left to view a comparison of energy
consumption for all types of electrical signs.
Portable Signs, Banners, and Pendants
We furnish our customers a "Grand
Opening Package" featuring a free 4' by 5' parking lot
"Coming Soon" free-standing portable sign or a free banner to attract
attention while their sign is being constructed.
We can also supply other banners and pendants.
"Coming Soon" and/or "Grand Opening"
Banners, pendants (small plastic flags on a rope), and
portable signs are very good ideas if your landlord and
City allow them.
Almost every City requires an additional Sign Permit for
banners and portable signs, and allows their use for one
month four times a year. Most cities do not allow
pendants.
We will file for your Portable Sign, banner, and pendant
permits for free while we are filing for your major sign
permit. See our "Permits
& Approvals" page under "Installation
& Service." We only charge for the actual
cost of the City permits.
Almost no City allows banners to be placed on existing
free-standing signs, fences, or between light poles.
Click our "Other
Products" tab for construction details on
banners.
Unless we are doing other work for a customer we do not make banners, portable signs, or do vinyl lettering, even though we have the equipment to do so. Our skills are better utilized in other areas. We recommend www.PromotionalFlair.com.
LED Message Center Rentals
Signs Manufacturing rents SunburstDisplays™ LED full-color digital animated electronic message centers.
This may be perfect for your Grand Opening or other special event.
Contact us for details.
Free
Co-op Advertising for Customers and Suppliers
The number of links to
a website, on other quality websites, is the major way a
website is "quality" ranked for listing order by search
engines.
You MUST
be towards the top of their “quality” list for your
website to be successful!
This
website is ranked in the top 4.21% in the world.
Your address link on our website will help you. It
is more important that your website is listed on one
quality website than on 100 average websites!
Average Free-Standing w/
Electronic Message Center*
$ 1.17
* US Small Business
Administration figures. Assumes 10,000 cars per day
– a very conservative figure for ANY business street, only
1 person in each car, and only a 10 year useful life for
the sign. ALL very conservative!
Most of the Newspaper, Television and Radio consumers reached are not in most businesses marketing area, a 5 mile radius of their store according to the US Small Business Administration. The actual cost of reaching a POTENTIAL consumer by these means is unknown, but much higher.
Letter styling is critical; look like
everyone else, or look special.
Signs Manufacturing has developed
performance-proven distinctive letter styles which help
our customers stand out in a crowd of signs.
Letter styles that also make for
readable signs. Letter styles like:
…and many more.
Are you sure you want
“BLOCK”
lettering (also known as HELVETICA
or ARIAL?)
Protecting Our Works*
A cautionary word or two about
Copyright Law:
Copyright protection exists in
original works of authorship in any form of expression
from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise
communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine
or device. Works of authorship include written,
pictorial, graphic works, etc. (our "Works.")
All Signs Manufacturing's Works are
Copyrighted, and may NOT be reproduced in any manner
without the expressed written permission of Signs
Manufacturing Corporation. This includes artwork,
communications, quotations, emails, etc.
We do, in writing, allow Works like
the drawing to the right and our product "Sign Buyer's
Guides" to be viewed internally within an organization,
but never to be reproduced.
Please don't reproduce or communicate
our Works to obtain competitive bids. Occasionally
we discover our Works in the possession of other sign
companies, or discover that our Works have been used to
produce signs (because they're usually on the front of
businesses they are easily discovered.) To protect
ourselves we must prosecute whoever transmitted our
Works. We do not enjoy having to do this.
Because we allow access to our Works
for free does not mean that we are transferring ownership
of our Works.*
* Our Works only become the property
of others, including our clients, if they have been
specifically purchased. In virtually all instances
our Works remain Signs Manufacturing's protected property
forever.
Just for Fun
Just for fun, go to our "Not-so-Good
Signs" tab to the left, above, to witness Signs
Manufacturing's "The Not-so-Good Signs, the Bad, Ugly,
Stupid & Dumb Signs" Awards Contest!
However, sign design involves many
more details than a good looking letterhead does..JPG)
We champion
energy-saving signs solutions that save our customers
money while
