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Custom Signs, A Historical Perspective to the Future

Signs are the oldest, most proven way to keep your business on the front burner...

As a business person you want your company to be on the front burner of your customers' minds. You most likely accomplish this through several avenues: advertising, sales calls, public relations, and hopefully custom signage.

Signs are one of the oldest methods for advertising businesses. In fact, King Richard II enacted a law in 1393 requiring that all alehouses hung a custom sign outside so that others could recognize them as an establishment that sold ale. These signs actually enabled the Ale Tasters (inspectors) to find the ales that needed testing. As a Chef, at least of Signs, I think that sounds like a pretty intriguing job. These aren not the oldest signs, but to me they are relevant to the Low Country.

Here in Charleston, one of the oldest English settlements in the United States, history is repeating itself, much like a Chef will make a recipe over and over if it sells well at a restaurant. If you walk down the streets of Charleston you'll see signs that still remain today, such as the signs at the corner of Ashley Avenue and Spring Street - "FOR GOOD SPORTS. KRUEGER BEER AND ALE," and "ASHLEY CREAM."

Although the technology behind the signs has changed a great deal, the core ingredients from hundreds of years ago still apply today. As people are walking or driving by your business establishment, you want them to:

  1. Recognize that your business is there
  2. Be able to tell easily what it is that you do
  3. And of course retain this information even if they do not stop right then and there

I liken this to flipping through a cookbook. Wouldn't you rather stop and make a yummy-sounding recipe with a nice picture than a recipe with an ordinary name and no idea what it will look like when you are done?

Designing a sign that does all this is not as difficult as it may sound. One of the benefits of custom signs having been around so long is that the art of signage can actually be broken down into a recipe for successful signs.

The basics are:
  • Size
  • Placement
  • Material
  • Color
  • Lettering
  • Image

Fortunately for you, I'll continue sharing the secret family recipes for signs in future columns. But until then, remember that you want to be on the front burner of your customers' minds, and by having the right custom sign out front, you'll be able to do just that.

Visit Our Custom Signage Page For More Information