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What is a Sign Consultant and What is Sign Consulting?
"How can a sign consultant help your organization or business?"
By Steven D. Philbrick
(A magazine article submitted for publication)
Signage consulting covers a broad continuum for private sector and government clients. To explain what specifically comprises sign consulting is a daunting task since it is comprised of so many different and interrelated components across a wide spectrum of services. Generally sign consultants identify essential requirements of signs and signage programs to provide correct evaluations and solutions that resolve environmental graphic, display, and advertising or wayfinding problems. A sign consultant helps organizations determine and accomplish identity, image, advertising and wayfinding goals and objectives to mitigate difficulties that client's are faced with relating to environmental graphics.
Sign companies often provide similar ancillary consulting services as part of the sale of their products. Their principal objective remains closing the deal and selling signs. Sign companies generally do a good job assisting their customers, but the consulting is a secondary aspect of the sale. Making and closing sales to generate profit for the sign company is what sign businesses strive to do. Competent sign companies work hard to make sure their customers receive the best product that they can provide, one that does the job that their clients have outlined for them. However, their intent is to provide their products to their customers. Consulting helps them to write specifications that their products can meet.
Sign consultants have a different motive than sign companies. They are not sign brokers or agents affiliated with individual sign companies or sign manufacturers. This is not a steadfast rule but should be considered when contracting with a sign consultant. Affiliated sign consultants sometimes act as commissioned salespersons. This risks putting personal interests ahead of their client's welfare. Sign consultants strive to help the client understand the full role of their signage and do not have to sell something to the client for both to profit from the relationship. They work with the client to form a partnership with that client. Some of these clients often including advertising or marketing firms or architectural design and project management concerns in addition to end users of sign programming.
Independent sign consultants have no vested monetary interest in the decisions of the client. Their job is to determine what the signage needs to accomplish and the best way to realize that. They are the singular best advocate for their client, successful only when facilitating the client's achievement of environmental graphics objectives. Sign consultants insure that the best possible outcome for the client is the focus of the consulting contract rather than profiting in some manner from the purchase of components of the signage program. They do not attempt to include products they provide in the specification process. This insures that their efforts improve the effectiveness of signage. The success is defined by that very effectiveness. When appropriate to the overall goal of the client, this success also positively influences the profit margin and bottom line of the client or affects costs or the signage's appropriateness to the task. Sign consultants should not work for commissions.
As an element of the programming services sign consultants can provide supervision of bidding by prospective vendors for the client to insure adherence to the specifications they have developed. Complete management of the entire signage program including administration of all aspects of putting the program in place is sometimes included. They even oversee the manufacture and installation of the signage. They develop Master Signage Plans and the Manuals to implement the plan. This work is normally billed on an hourly or contract basis and not as a commission on the sale of the product.
Signs are instruments and devices placed in the environment for a variety of purposes. Through time, man has utilized signs for everything from promotion and wayfinding to architectural embellishment. In The Valley of the Kings, signage even provided the pharaoh guidance for after life procedures and duties. Legibility is paramount in signage; it is imperative to the functioning sign. A sign's primary mission is to impart the information that it is in place to transmit. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. One defining element of signage is the mission is primarily accomplished visually, through text and the graphics, a combination of both elements. ADA signage uses Braille for the visually impaired as a third element, to achieve the same thing tactually. ADA signs must follow strict guidelines set forth by government for content and installation consistency. Wayfinding, Information Systems Design, Architectural Signage Programming, and ADA sign programming and compliance audits are services provided by many sign consulting firms who are familiar with the prerequisites of good signage programs and any regulations that govern them.
Airports are excellent places to observe good and bad characteristics of architectural and wayfinding signage. Common use icons frequently replace or supplement text to transmit important wayfinding information. To find the terminal, follow the directional signage that displays the symbol of an airplane. Even with the standardization of icons sometimes it is difficult to find the restrooms in a large concourse; this is not true if adequate directional signage is employed. Universal visual recognition of icons instantly works for both government and private enterprise to transmit signs' messages.
Government has done a reasonable job of directional signage on our nations' highways thru standardized transportation signs. Fonts, sizes, icons and directional elements are outlined in Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The commercial sector has not done as well. Sign consultants identify wayfinding requirements and help implement sound architectural and directional signage programs through cataloging impediments and implementing reliable graphic design resolutions. Knowledge of legibility parameters is important to good directional signage design and programming. Sign consultants program traffic and pedestrian wayfinding systems using legibility formulas.
Sign design should have a creative edge but not at the cost of comprehension. Design agencies and architects sometimes go overboard to insure that signage looks attractive; somehow stands out from or blends in with the environment. This is detrimental to the purpose of the signs when taken to the extreme. Something that looks and performs excellently in other media and even on the drawing board does not always translate well in an identity sign or wayfinding program. Often in architectural firms the signage specification becomes the responsibility of a junior associate who does not have background or expertise to assess wayfinding needs. These staff members are required to do a large amount of research to get up to speed on what is required to assure and facilitate good wayfinding. They open up a manual or look at vendors' catalogs to make decisions about a directional signage program. Typically the Sweets Network or a subscription service is utilized. This kind of programming leads to mimicry instead of innovation. A signage consultant can review a set of plans for a facility and immediately recognize the correct placement of architectural and identity signs. From experience they will know how large the copy and the signs need to be for legibility requirements. Utilization of signage consultants ultimately saves the architectural firm and the client time and money.
McDonalds, Coca-Cola and many other large corporations use their logos to transmit advertising and location information thru signage. No one has difficulty finding a Coke machine if one is in sight. Not everyone has such an instantly recognizable logo as a Nike swoosh or the Coca-Cola script and colors. These corporations expend great efforts to insure that they are consistent in all of their branding and signage. They all develop and utilize Graphics Standards Manuals to cover all applications of their branding and image. They remain consistent no matter what media they utilize to display their graphics.
Location information is a primary function of the on-site sign and on-premise signage. Additionally, good advertising performance is frequently compulsory for these signs. Due to the very nature of on-site advertising and identification signage, visual clutter and overload impacts effectiveness. The Las Vegas Strip is a good example of information overload. If ever there was a place where the lyric “Sign, sign, everywhere a sign...” applies to the real world; this is it. No matter how large a sign is, it is sometimes difficult to see what is necessary in an information overload where the number of signs is overwhelming. The job of the sign consultant is to make the sign and its message seen by those it targets. This same principle applies to directional signs; the sign is there to transmit information.
Hand in hand with attractive design, signs must perform their primary function to transmit the intended message in a glance. You can't read the Lord's Prayer on a sign. If it is clear what a large block of copy is because of design or content, then reading it is unnecessary. Typically, the inclusion of these types of design elements cause signs to be busy and interferes with comprehension of the messages the signs need to transmit. Billboards normally should display no more words than can be quickly read. Nowhere is it clearer that a picture can transmit a thousand words. Directional signage has the same problem. Many times wayfinding signs contain more information than can be internalized by the person who needs it most within the time that the sign can be read. Legibility again is a key factor here.
Sign consultants understand the function of the sign in its environment. They assist clients in design, placement, size and other parameters that help signs effectively accomplish their missions. Both off-site and on-site signage need to follow this guidance. Attractive, first impressions are only part of the overall effectiveness of a sign. Sign consultants help determine the proper balance of design and message comprehension. They insure necessary copy is included in the legend on the sign.
Every imaginable manufacturing process and substrate is used to produce signage. Determining what process and materials will yield the best product and amortization schedule, maintenance costs and life in service to the best advantage of the user is a prime element of signage programming and consulting. Government has outlined strict specifications for materials performance to best address these issues for DOT traffic signs. In the private sector, malls or landlords determine specifications for signage design and construction. These specifications define the overall ambience and conformity of the signs to the desired image. Signage consultants frequently write these guidelines so design criteria are adhered to and construction and installation methods are specified, standardized and followed. A client might wonder if neon will provide more lumens than LED's or if LED's are more cost effective than neon or fluorescent illumination. Sign consultants outline what elements are most relative to these equations.
Sign consultants are familiar with code restrictions and environmental conditions that affect a sign's performance. Municipalities set forth Sign and Zoning Ordinances that outline construction, size, overall height and other limitations that impact design, fabrication and installation of signs. Ultimately these factors determine a sign's utility. When the maximum height permitted by ordinance for a sign is twenty-five feet, often it is better not to push the envelope and make the sign as tall as allowed by code. The physical location of the structure might be better served by not placing the sign right next to the property line or the drive way. The sign as a locating or advertising device must be sited where it will make the most impressions for those the message intends to impact. Location, Location, Location.
Attractive landscaping always compliments sign design. Existing conditions and what the environment will look like over time are factors to consider when installing a sign and determine correct placement of the sign. How existing signage or future development and landscaping will impact the placement of a sign structure are important essentials in deciding the proper location for a sign. A thorough sign survey is best way to establish placement of a sign in its environment for good viewing, comprehension and legibility. Landscaping that does not enhance the attractiveness of a sign negatively impacts its effectiveness as much as screening of the sign by other signs, trees, bushes, buildings or visual clutter.
Sign surveys, code checks, permit acquisition, variance application and research are also important aspects of a successful sign program. Prototyping, sign specification writing, project management, coordination and supervision of manufacture; sign consultants must do all of this and consider every factor to accomplish the best result for sign design and placement. Sign consultants work for the client to determine the best way to insure that signage graphically fulfills the intent of that client. They provide the necessary ingredients and integrate them into the signage programming. Sign Consultants work exclusively for their clients in a symbiotic relationship. The input of the client to determine objectives and solutions to programming problems is almost always an essential part of the signage programming.
Many sign consultants specialize in graphic design and logo development, others engineering. Some sign consultants provide Right of Way litigation problem resolution assistance in areas of signage valuation, relocation and replacement, in addition to complete signage appraisal services (move, replacement & depreciated values of signs). They also function as Expert Witnesses when called on by government or private enterprise. If qualified, sign consultants can intervene in insurance settlements and disputes. Sign consultants write the Lease Attachment Sign Specifications for landlords and developers; Master Signage Plans and Manuals for institutions and corporations. An experienced sign consultant saves a client much more than the firm's fee while providing a wealth of knowledge in areas that almost all organizations, advertising and design agencies or architects have little or no experience.
Sign consultants are familiar with all of these areas and have an intimate understanding of off-premise Outdoor Advertising media in addition to on-premise signs and signage programming. This knowledge and experience is available from signage consulting firms. Dependence upon design and advertising agencies or architects to provide these services has led to a large and mostly untapped and under utilized resource. A sign consultant can identify and help resolve signage objectives.
Steven D. Philbrick is the President of SR+ Consulting Group, SR+ graphics & signage design consultants. He has provided sign consulting services since 1977. He is the principal in this sign consulting firm and maintains an Internet presence at: http://www.srplus.com.
© 2008
Steven D. Philbrick
SR+ graphics & signage design consultants
Great American Sign, Signal and Graphics Co.