When you’re looking for a fresh new sign design, it’s all about grabbing the attention of potential customers. This attention-grabbing quality is the most important aspect of sign design and can be achieved in many different ways. Although they have been around for a long time, channel letters remain one of the best ways to turn heads and get plenty of eyeballs on the product.
Why Are Channel Letter Signs So Effective?
When an idea has stuck around for this long, you know that it’s doing the job. Otherwise, the concept would have been abandoned long ago. There are several key advantages that have contributed to this remarkable staying power.
Advantage #1: Visibility
The three-dimensional aspect is a big part of what makes channel letter signs successful. No matter how well-rendered it may be, a digital image will never be quite as impressive as a real, physical object. Both consciously and subconsciously, people understand that a digital image is not “real” in any literal sense. Everyone knows that these images consist of skillfully arranged pixels, but a physical object is another story.
We should also talk about long-distance visibility. Channel letter signs are much more visible from far away, mostly because they tend to be larger. Since the letters are separate physical objects, they will not be drowned out by the glare of the sun or other light-related factors.
Advantage #2: Lighting Options
Channel letters can be lit in a number of different ways, which contributes to their overall versatility. You can put lights inside the letters themselves, which is probably the most popular option. However, you can also go for a backlit or “halo” effect, using lights located behind the letters. The silhouette of light creates a distinctive glowing effect that really looks good at night. You can also combine these two types for even more brightness and glow. In fact, just about any kind of lighting can be used in combination with channel letters.
Advantage #3: Cheaper Maintenance
Channel letters are an example of a composite sign. That means they consist of more than one piece, as opposed to a standard lighted cabinet. Although that does increase their cost of operation slightly, it comes with a maintenance-saving benefit. When you need to repair a channel letter sign, you will most likely have to repair just one letter. While it is possible for multiple letters to go out at the same time, the odds are against that. Since these signs use LED lighting (almost universally), replacement costs are nowhere near as bad as they once were.
Advantage #4: The Competitive Factor
When choosing a new business sign, you need to think about the area in which the sign will be placed. Think about all the other business signs that are probably in the area and how yours will look in contrast to theirs. You want to avoid making anything that resembles nearby signs too closely. Unique color schemes and images will generally win the competition for public attention.
Channel letters have a great competitive factor because they stand out more than flat signs, and that might actually force someone to choose this type of lettering. You don’t want to be the only person in the area without channel letters or you will surely be at a disadvantage.
Mistakes To Avoid When Using Channel Letters
As with any project, channel letters can be done wrongly. This is why professional sign companies exist, of course, as there are many key mistakes that can lessen the effectiveness of a business sign. Here are a few examples of such:
- Choosing letter colors that are too similar to the color of the building itself. This causes the letters to blend in like a chameleon, which isn’t what you want.
- Using fonts that are difficult to read, like most cursive scripts. Legibility for all is very important.
- Making channel letters too small to be seen from far away. This defeats one of the reasons for using a channel letter sign in the first place.
- Placing signs in a location where they cannot be easily viewed. You particularly want people to see that sign from the nearest roadway, preferably in both directions.
Using Non-Letters In Combination With Channel Letters
When making a channel letter sign, you don’t necessarily have to limit yourself to letters and numbers alone. You could theoretically use any kind of shape or symbol, including your company logo. Many companies will choose to combine a lighted logo with their channel letters, basically using symbols as part of the message. This is still considered to be a channel letter sign, even if it might be said to be somewhat hybridized.
Choose The Right Mounting Method
There are a lot of different ways to mount your channel letters, but the three most common choices are raceway mounts, backer mounts, or direct mounting. Raceway monitoring uses a long, thin box to mount the letters. This is handy because the box also houses the wiring, plugs, and other electrical components. This method tends to be less damaging to the walls of a building, so it has become a very popular choice.
The backer method involves the use of a wide, thin backboard. This can be a great creative choice, as it gives you a large surface to embellish and decorate. It gives you many options for creative background art, and it isn’t much more trouble than the raceway method. Finally, we have the simple and direct method, in which each letter is individually bolted to the wall.
Conclusion
All of these choices can make it difficult to design the perfect channel letter sign. That is where Tupp Signs can help, as we have the expertise to help you make the perfect sign every time. This article should give you a good overview, but you can learn even more by calling us at 302-322-1600.