Skills Your Sign Designer Should Have

A sign company will continually struggle with technical projects or hard-to-do projects without a good sign designer. A sign company that does not have a fast sign designer creates more stress and strain for their business.

Consider the following questions and statements and how they apply to your sign designer’s knowledge and skills:

• Is your designer capable of sign design for both interior and outdoor signage quickly and efficiently?
• Is your designer capable of sign design for electrical signage with the technical knowledge required?
• Is your designer capable of sign design for a wall sign mounting detail and a ground sign installation detail quickly and efficiently?
• Is your designer capable of vectorizing a logo quickly and efficiently?
• Is your designer capable of ADA signage with all the changing regulatory requirements quickly and efficiently?
• And are they ready for the headache of fire evac maps?

A professional sign designer is a person who understands how to design on a budget. A pro sign designer can also provide options with a drawing presentation that will enhance a salesperson’s ability to sell a project. This designer is also able to do rush jobs. A professional can turnaround drawings faster than average. This type of designer can create everything required by a commercial sign company, including shop drawings.

Reasons a designer may not be able to draw fast:

• Not knowing how to create a full sign submittal for a municipality (a standard template)
• Not knowing how to write concise but detailed sign specifications (for quoting)
• Not knowing how to do shop drawings (technical, design-to-build drawings)
• Not knowing how to draw a clear, easy-to-read section detail for a building sign with electric power
• Not knowing how to draw a clear, easy-to-read ground sign installation drawing with electric power
• Not knowing how to do speculation drawings (with options)
• Not knowing how to create a day and night version of a sign (with options)
• Not knowing how to create a 3D view that is a realistic, dimensional rendering with a sign (with an isometric graphic)

A graphic designer should have a good grasp on a majority of the items listed and the different sign types. If not, a business will suffer.

Providing solutions to your customers should be one of the main goals within your company. Having the right tools at your company’s disposal is a good reason to have a connection to a talented and fast designer. So, when a customer asks you to make their sign, you don’t have to say, “We do that from time to time.” Instead, your reply will be “Yes, we can make your signs,” and you can say it with confidence.