Question

Topic: Other

Designing The Face Of A Business Monument Sign

Posted by Anonymous on 7/19/2009 at 6:11 PM ET 250 Points
University of Doglando offers the following services:

1. Dog Grooming
2. Dog Training
3. Cage Free Boarding
4. All Natural Dog Food
5. Doggy Day Care

Our campus sits on 3.5 acres, and we are the only completely cage free facility in Orlando, FL.

Our facility is unique in many aspects. One key aspect is that our main building used to be a residence, and we have maintained that feel by keeping the home like features, such as kitchen, bed rooms etc and by creating open entrances in the bed room walls, we have created a large in door play area.

Dogs at Doglando are given ultimate freedom of the indoors and 3.5 Acre outdoor playareas; they come and go as they wish. Our play areas include a jungle gym (obstacle course), a doggy beach with pool, and one large are of lush lawn.

Every visitor we have had is always amazed and surprised as to how clean our facility is kept, and how well behaved our dogs are. This is the second aspect that diffrentiates us from our competitors. Because of our cage free environment, we are very strict in our assessments not just dogs, but owners as well. We are an enrichment facility and proper socialization and helping pet owners create socially appropriate, well mannered dogs is our utmost priority.

With all this being said, our facility is tucked away off a main hwy, behind a storage facility. The gravel road leading to our facility is approximately 600 feet long, therefore making the building itself invisible from the main road.

Our sign (that sits out on the main road) is 6 feet tall by 10 feet wide. I realize our sign has too much information and can not be read until one is pretty close to it.

I am looking for ideas for the sign. I would like to incorporate our logo (to help with the branding) and create a sign that is sophisticated, playful, professional and gives the impression "Doglando is the place for anything and everything DOG."

Creating a sign that is catchy, legible and attractive is key, especially because we are so far off the main road... we need dog owners to want to drive back there.

To learn more about our facility and see our logo, please visit us
www.universityofdoglando.com.

Thank you in advance. I am looking forward to all the great ideas.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 7/19/2009 at 7:36 PM Accepted
    Keep it very simple: your name, logo and perhaps a list of the top 3 or 4 services you provide. Resist the temptation to try to make the sign do too much.

    Particularly on a sign that is supposed to be read by drive-bys, you need to keep it really simple. The old rule of thumb for outdoor advertising is "3 words and a large image." In that sense, this is outdoor advertising.
  • Posted on 7/19/2009 at 7:51 PM Author
    Thank you. I did not know about the 3" rule of thumb for the letters.

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 7/19/2009 at 8:34 PM Accepted
    Dear Teenappatel,

    Forget a logo. At 40 mph it will be all but invisible or illegible, and when people are driving, looking at a map, and trying to read road signs the last thing they're going to be looking for is a logo.

    What your sign DOES NOT NEED TO BE is sophisticated and playful. Professional? Yes. But it does not have to give the impression "Doglando is the place for anything and everything DOG" it's your job to do that in your marketing material and on your website (see below).

    Your sign just needs to direct and inform. Once it's done that it's done its job.

    All your sign needs to say is "Doglando: Cage Free Boarding". Nothing more other than perhaps a telephone number.

    Below it you need an arrow pointing in your general direction.
    And assuming you're on a two way road your sign needs to be double sided so that it can be read from both directions.

    If local sign regulations permit it, you also need two other signs, each saying "Doglando: Cage Free Boarding, quarter mile on the left" (or on the right, as appropriate), and each one placed where it can be clearly seen at least a quarter of a mile away from your driveway.

    Also consider referencing your signs in your promotional material (leaflets, sales letters, website).

    As well as a sign you need to pay serious attention to your website because it's not doing you any favors. To be confronted with a series of boxes as the first thing people see when they arrive on your site isn't adding to a positive first impression. But that's an answer for another post.

    So, no logos, nothing fancy, just signs that give clear, uncluttered directions. Save the bouncing Fido illustrations and all things dog for when people roll up outside your front door.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA
  • Posted on 7/19/2009 at 8:42 PM Author
    Hi Gary,
    Thank you for being very detailed and providing examples. I completely get what you are saying.

    Although I am not able to place signs prior to our business location, I think a clear, clutter free sign like you mentioned will work much better than what we have.

    I appreciate you taking a look at our website, and I know I need help on that too... I will work on that as my next project after the sign.

    Thanks very much for your feedback and time.

    Teena
  • Posted on 7/19/2009 at 9:27 PM Moderator
    Teena, it's not a three-inch rule. It's a three-word rule. People can't read and retain more than three words when they are driving past your sign. If you try to cram more than three words into your sign, they'll just ignore the whole thing ... too much effort/too difficult to read four words or more while driving.

    The letter size will probably need to be more than three inches, though I'd leave that up to the graphic design professional who does the sign.
  • Posted on 7/19/2009 at 9:49 PM Author
    Oh Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. Gosh that is very minimal huh.

    Well, I do realize that as the sign we have currently has so much on it, and can not be read even when you are close to it... very very poorly designed by the sign company.

    The face is 10 feet by 6 feet so that is a lot of space. Can I get away with a bit more on there?

    Thank you for your help.

    Teena
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/20/2009 at 12:10 AM Accepted
    Add your logo or image of a happy dog to quickly cement what you do. Also, you may not need the area code (just for this sign), since all of Orlando is area code 407.

    As for the message content, focus on the #1 reason people visit you. Is it for daycare/boarding or something else. Put that reason on your sign.
  • Posted on 7/20/2009 at 8:46 PM Moderator
    A bit more like four or five words. No more. There's a point at which the next extra word is like subtracting 5 in terms of recall.

    Let's say you decide to go with 6 words, and that's over the threshold. If you subtract 5, that would be like having 1 word. So the closer you stay to 3, the less likely you are to cross that threshold. And if you get to 6, you are almost certainly too high.

    BTW, the threshold could be 4 or 5, in which case you lose if you go over 3 regardless.

    Less really is more.
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