Signs are the oldest, most proven method to keeping your business on the front burner…

As a business person you of course want your company to be on the front burner of your customers’ minds. You most likely accomplish this through several avenues: advertising, sales calls, public relations, and hopefully custom signage.

Signs are one of the oldest methods for advertising businesses. In fact, King Richard II enacted a law in 1393 requiring that all alehouses hung a custom sign outside identifying them as establishments that sold ale. These signs actually enabled the Ale Tasters (inspectors) to find the ales that needed testing. As a Chef, at least of Signs, I think that sounds like a pretty interesting job. These aren not the oldest signs, but to me they are quite relevant to the Low Country.

Here in Charleston, one of the oldest English settlements in the United States, history is repeating itself, much like a Chef will make a recipe over and over again if it sells well at a restaurant. If you walk down the streets of Charleston you will see signs that still remain today, such as the signs at the corner of Ashley Avenue and Spring Street—“FOR GOOD SPORTS. KRUEGER BEER AND ALE,” and “ASHLEY CREAM.”

Although the technology behind the signs has changed dramatically, the core ingredients from hundreds of years ago are still the same today. As people are passing by your business establishment, you want them to:

1. Know that your business is there
2. Be able to tell easily what it is that you do
3. And of course retain this information even if they do not stop right at that moment

As the Sign Chef, I liken this to flipping through a cookbook. Wouldn’t you rather stop and make a yummy-sounding recipe with a nice picture than a recipe with an ordinary name and without an idea what it’ll look like when you are done?

Designing a sign that does all this isn’t as difficult as it may seem. One of the benefits of custom signs having been around so long is that the art of signage can actually be broken down into a recipe for successful signs.

The basics are:

• Color
• Lettering
• Image
• Size
• Placement
• Material 

Luckily for you, I’ll continue sharing the secret family recipes for signs in future columns. But until then, remember that you want to be on the front burner of your customers’ minds, and by having the right sign out front, you will be able to do just that.