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Show Customers Their Sign on Their Own Storefront Before They Buy

ยท 2 min read

Short answer: ask for a straight-on photo of the wall, set the scale from something in the photo you can measure, like a door, and show the sign at night as well as by day. A mockup on their own building settles size and color questions before they become objections.

Customers struggle to picture a sign from a flat drawing. "Is 48 inches big enough?" is hard to answer in the abstract and easy to answer on a photo of their shop.

Getting a useful photo

Ask the customer for:

  • A straight-on photo, standing across the street if they can, not at a sharp angle
  • The whole wall, so the sign can be judged against the building
  • Daylight, without strong shadows across the wall
  • One thing they can measure, such as the door, a window or the width of the shop front

A phone photo is fine.

Getting the scale right

A sign that looks right on a photo at the wrong scale is worse than no mockup. Use the measured object:

  1. Mark the door, or whatever they measured, on the photo.
  2. Enter its real size.
  3. Everything else on the photo now has a scale, so the sign appears at its true size.

That one step answers most size questions. Customers often find their first choice too small for the wall.

Show day and night

Lit signs look completely different at night. Halo-lit letters that look plain by day come alive after dark, and a white neon can look warm or cold. Show both. See front-lit vs halo-lit channel letters.

Things to point out

  • Clearance above the door and below any awning
  • Where the power comes through the wall
  • Whether the wall color works with the sign color
  • How far away people will read it from

Let customers do it themselves

In Sign Designer customers can place the sign on a photo of their own storefront and set the scale from something in the photo they can measure. The sign is shown in 3D at an angle, with day and night views, so they see how it will look on their wall before they submit. They can download a mockup image too, to show a landlord or a business partner.

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