Get a Great Sign for Your Consignment Store

If you're paying all that rent for a location with good foot traffic, you ought to be making the most of it. Here are the basics of getting a great sign for your new store.



Make it Legal

Even if you have to go through the hassle of getting a permit in order to have a great sign, do it. Also be sure that you know the rules and zoning guidelines for signs in your area before you have your sign made. Even the smallest village might have extremely strict ordinances for signs, and it is well worth a few phone calls to find out what you can do before you discover your fantastic new $3000 sign is "illegal".


Get Your Landlord's Blessing

You will probably have to negotiate with your landlord to have a really large or visually arresting sign, and the best time to do that is before you sign the lease.


Make Your Sign Easy to Read

If you are going to do a sign that hangs out over the sidewalk, make sure you've got a second sign so that people across the street can it, too. Your sign must me easily readable from across the street and from 50 feet away on either side of the sidewalk. That usually means that any fancy type you are tempted to use will have to be made bold or altered by a designer so the thinnest parts of the letters are still easily seen.


Road Test Your Sign

You should test out your sign design with a bunch of different people, even if you have to enlist them in the parking lot of the sign maker. Not everyone's vision is perfect, of course, but you want at least 80% of your test viewers to be able to easily read the words on your sign from 30 feet or more. In addition to using a clear typeface, that means the color of the lettering and the background color will need very good contract. No black letters over a dark purple background. And, if at all possible, do NOT use "knockout lettering", which means white type over a dark background. Designers love knockout type, but it is simply harder to read and this has been proven in test after test after test.


Make the Letters Big

Another key factor here is letter size. Your parking lot crowd test will be the final call, but even before that your sign should have letters at least four inches high, and six inches high is better. Are you starting to see why it was such a good idea to give your store a name that everyone understood instantly -- squeezing "consignment store" under a cryptic store name makes for a less than optimal sign.

Use upper and lowercase letters for your sign. This will make it even easier to read.


Don't Be a Copycat

Make sure your sign contrasts against other signs near it. Two neighboring store owners with red and yellow signs is too much. Really try to make your sign distinctive. This can be a challenge in some tourist towns that have dozens of little stores crammed into one block.


Be a Night Lite

If you keep evening hours, seriously consider spending a little money on some neon. You should also not turn up your nose at making your sign shiny -- flashes of metal or glass in the sunlight have been attracting people's attention for millenia. Some people refer to it as "the human magpie effect".

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