Be Seen in Traffic
When promoting your company, brand and image there are multiple considerations for your signage. Successful signage involves more than blending an attractive logo with a slogan. It's many complex elements such as marketing, demographics, and understanding how it will be seen.
Placement
If your sign is mounted on the front of the building parallel to a highway, research shows it needs to be 70% larger than the sign mounted perpendicular or it can not be read in the time. Also if the sign has unfamiliar words or too many words it will also take longer to read.
For example, if the speed of traffic in front of the site is 30 mph, and the street has two lanes in each direction so that a lane change is needed, your customers will need to be able to see and read your sign from 410 feet away.
If your customers would not be able to see your business sign from that distance, you should consider another location.
Size Matters
Experts recommend that the letters on a sign be a minimum of one-inch for every twenty five feet of distance. This makes them readable for the passing traffic. If your sign uses fancy lettering it will be more difficult to read and the minimum letter size will be increased. Once you know how large your letters need to be and where it will be placed, you must consider how tall it needs to be.
The further your sign is from the road the taller the sign will need to be to be visible by passing traffic. Highway signs are intended to be read from great distances and therefore are often very tall. Signs directly at a business with a traffic pattern of approximately 30 mph only need to be tall enough that a car, whether parked or moving, will not block the sign from view (about 7 feet). Table 5 is a good guide assuming that the sign is mounted perpendicular to the road and that the letters meet the minimum requirement discussed.
Don't put all this energy and money into your sign and not light it. Lighting allows your sign to be read 24 hours a day. Even when your business is closed your sign can be working for you.
Most businesses are not going to be well served by a small, plain sign with no graphics. The lettering style, the ability of graphics and logos to be easily recognized, whether or not the words on the sign are familiar and easy to read, the lighting methods used, and even the colors used all impact people's ability to see and read a sign
