Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on “Crafting” the Right Image For Your Beverage

“Crafting” the Right Image For Your Beverage

Porter House Coffee Graphics

What Is Brand Activation & Why Is It Important?

Brand Activation is the practice of engaging the public with your brand and its related imagery (logos, packaging colors, catchphrases, etc.) in places and events that create a positive experience for current and potential customers.

The goal of a brand activation campaign is to create brand recognition by offering thoughtfully designed activities and environments that showcase your brand within an emotionally uplifting milieu. It’s also about bringing your brand to life by creating experiences that can lead to long-term, deeply seated connections with the consumer.

By providing brand-sponsored public events, interactive online activities, or even snail mail-based activities – such as mail-in promotions for cash rewards or prizes (that can also be emblazoned with branded logos, catchphrases, and imagery) that serve to gain the public’s acceptance and create a deep connection to your product(s) and enhance your sales, as well as your image.

Stabilizing your company’s future as a “trusted brand name” in a highly competitive corporate climate becomes a tangible goal when using Brand Activation as a marketing tool.

Creative Ways To Activate Your Brand 

The concept of Brand Activation can seem confusing when including it in your marketing budget.

Historically, there have been many strong examples of its effective use, and one of the best is the brewery of a world-famous beer. This centuries-old brewery, located in Dublin, Ireland, utilizes Brand Activation in an extremely effective matter. The well-known brewhouse has an interactive, guided tour that is a popular tourist attraction. With a museum-like presentation, charming Irish docents lead visitors through engaging displays that illustrate the brewing process and familiarize the public with the history of the family who created and owned it for generations.

Let us at Signature Graphics inject immersive imagery and other thoughtful, creative elements into your launch event that can potentially lead to loyal client relationships with your brand. Our team can assist you with dozens of creative ways to use Brand Activation, depending upon your needs.

If you are in need of a visually stunning product or service launch, plan a regional or national brand-forward event to coincide with it. Dazzle the public with creatively displayed images, carefully chosen colors that can influence emotion, music, and other uplifting elements that they may later associate with your brand and how your brand.

One of the most effective methods to start with is to look at what your company already has in use, and update any generic or overlooked surfaces around you to advertise your brand. Lots of companies throw a lot of money into technology alone when updating their image, and overlook more traditional advertising, presented more creatively for an ever-changing public.

Some of the most successful companies have turned to innovation and creativity in advertising as the bedrock of a rewarding brand activation campaign. Let our team of creative professionals help design an immersive experience or environment for your brand. If your company owns a fleet of unbranded vehicles, one easy way to subtly insert your brand onto the streets and highways is achieved through the use of graphic advertisements.

We can help you utilize that blank space as an effective way to build your brand. As an added bonus, if you want realtime data to gauge the impact of your projects, Signature Graphics couples our brandRESPONSE technology with our highly competent team of professionals to help you activate your brand as efficiently as possible.

Please call us today at 1-800-356-3235 or request a quote from us today and explore how Signature Graphics and our team of talented professionals can take your brand to the next level with top of the line 3M products and a solid guarantee of your satisfaction.

We proudly use 3MTM graphic films and overlaminates.

Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on Trade Secrets of Producing Great Signage

Trade Secrets of Producing Great Signage

Army Window SignageAny thriving business relies on rock-solid advertising. At Signature Graphics, we have a talented staff of professionals that know the in and outs of graphic design to make your brand stand out among the others.

Five Important Tips To Remember

1) Consider Signage Location

Any signs you will be producing will contrast with the background that they will be located in. Whether you’re putting a sign on the side of a parking garage, on the window of a building, or on a city bus, each setting must be considered when making color choices and laying out the composition of your design. Expect us to ask you these kinds of questions to make the correct decisions and make the biggest impact with your graphics.

2) Use Contrasting Color Schemes 

High contrast color will make the biggest visual impact in design. It will capture the eye and draw it in. Having a high contrast between your text and the background will increase readability in directional signage, outdoor wayfinding signage, and other roadside applications. Staying away from muted color schemes, in general, is a good idea when looking to produce stunning signage to attract attention.

3) Keep The Message On Point

Ads in publications, online, and on TV and film have the luxury of being able to go into great detail about what product or service is offered. On brand signs, however, it is important to keep your message brief and informative. Pare down the details regarding your product or services as much as possible while still retaining the message you need to convey. Our designers will help you make the design shine and deliver your message as effectively as possible, to the largest audience possible.

4) Use Fonts To Your Advantage

Take careful consideration of your fonts. Using simple lines and avoiding serif types will be the most readable way to go. The larger, the better when considering readability from a distance. Once again, contrasting your font color to your background is also highly recommended.

5) Consider Negative Space 

The best use of the limited space in question uses contrasting colors along with the effective use of negative space, and of clear wording that captures the imagination. By using the space you are working in a visually pleasing and thoughtful way, it helps to make your ads stand out in the crowd. 

Interesting use of negative space, and tapping into wayfinding psychology, is most effective when you are closely competing with other signage in close proximity. If you wish for your ads to break loose from the pack, analyzing neighboring ads can inform your teams on how to differentiate your brand in the minds of consumers.

Get Started Today!

If you’re looking for solid professionals to help you plan your advertising, please request a quote today to get a risk free estimate and information on how we can assist you and your brand.

We proudly use 3MTM graphic films and overlaminates.

Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on Preparing Your Fleet for Graphic Wraps

Preparing Your Fleet for Graphic Wraps

Servpro Fleet Wrap PrepEver since the infancy of modern advertising, fleet graphics have existed to establish brand recognition. Catchy adverts were hand-painted on the sides of circus wagons and on the coaches of traveling salesmen. Fleet graphics have been utilizing public roadways in the marketing of brands to the public for hundreds of years. 

Modern fleet graphics are applied to every existing type of transport vehicle to sensibly maximize brand exposure. Signature provides your company, and your brand, with our extensive network of professionals to provide the best possible products and customer service available today. You can rely on our expertise and our products because we guarantee it!

Some Things To Consider When Planning Your Fleet Graphics

First and foremost, you should take a good look at the availability and condition of the vehicles you will be having graphics applied to. 

In addition, have the following information ready in preparation for your customized fleet graphics:

  • How many vehicles will be wrapped?
  • How much of your fleet can you afford to take out of circulation while wraps are applied?
  • Are the surfaces of your vehicles clean – taking into account dents, scratches or less than perfect surfaces?
  • Do you have suitable indoor space for wraps to be applied?
  • Make, model, year and colors of the vehicles being wrapped.

You can view our planning kit for more detailed information on preparing your fleet for graphics. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding the information-gathering portion of the process.

Selecting An Installer With A Quality Product

We pride ourselves at Signature for using top of the line 3M film for flawless, full coverage application. 3M backs our company’s warranty, and our exclusive use of their overlaminates and graphic films to provide the best product available. Signature’s G7 Master Printer certification (certified experts in the field of color management, processing, and quality control of both proofing and printing equipment) provides an additional level of assurance that you will not be disappointed with your investment in our fleet graphics. Well trained and experienced technicians accurately and efficiently applying custom graphics to trucks and all other vehicles. We offer graphic films for both long term or short term applications, as well as additional film protection/clear coat for ultimate durability and resilience if required.

Using trusted 3M wraps also means that if you need to repair, replace, or remove any fleet graphics in the future, the removal won’t cause damage to your vehicle’s exterior like cheaply made wraps do. As an MCS Certified 3M Provider, we rise above other companies by offering the longest, most inclusive warranty in our field, standing firmly behind the excellence of our graphic wraps for your brand’s fleet. 

Most installations come with a 7-year MCS warranty, which is the single best that is available in the fleet graphics industry: Signature alone offers that iron-clad commitment to quality. 

Treat Each Vehicle Individually – Design, Installation and Maintenance Tracking is Key

Fleet graphics are a sensible way to drive the brand value up while driving cost-per-acquisition down, and our design team is there to assist you in every detail of the process, from the conceptual phase to the proof/prototype phase, to the application of the custom film to your fleet. 

After completion of your brand’s custom fleet designs, we will provide you full-color proofs for every vehicle type you own to examine before proceeding with the application process. For large re-brands, a full prototype will be applied to a sample vehicle to serve as a full-scale sample of the finished fleet for your approval. These extra steps help eliminate design flaws over hinges, moldings, gas caps, and other potentially problematic areas. 

Introducing brandRESPONSE For Real-Time Project Management

The professionals at Signature realize how important it is for you to maintain a clear and constant knowledge of the inventory of your unique graphics and designs, the progress of your installations, and to maintain an up to date register of the condition of your fleet and other assets. We have created brandRESPONSE for our valued clients, to function as a real-time virtual assistant: tracking all of your projects and the details surrounding your fleet, and helping you constantly gauge important data from the field. Every detail of your fleet and your projects will be clearly presented to you with this handy tool – a feature that is unique to Signature, alone. The choice is clear when you compare our excellent record of customer satisfaction, combined with the most knowledgeable team of professionals in the industry, and our exclusive use of premium quality 3M graphic films and overlaminates to assure the best overall experience available in fleet graphics today.

Signature’s solid reputation and attention to detail speak for itself, so please contact us today for a risk-free quote if you are ready to increase your brand value with a beautifully custom designed and fitted straight truck, box truck, van, step van, trailer, truck, and car wraps. Let us help you monetize your fleet today!

We proudly use 3MTM graphic films and overlaminates.

Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on Hire A Professional To Brand Your Corporate Environment

Hire A Professional To Brand Your Corporate Environment

California Milk Wall Environmental BrandingEven in open-plan workplaces, constant use of computers can contribute to workplace-related depression and feelings of isolation among staff. When you look at all the ways that a depressing work area can drag down your business, making a dynamic and uplifting workplace becomes a priority in keeping an edge on productivity and creating a desirable, happy place to work. As a bonus, it presents an opportunity to inject your brand into your office layout, and also create an interactive touchpoint to interact with the public by effectively utilizing Environmental branding.

Signature’s Four-Step Approach To A Successful Corporate Environment

A key to success in branding a corporate environment is to have an unbiased, professional eye when planning and implementing the design of workplaces: the same rule applies if you are tasked to overhaul a less than uplifting corporate office, or to newly design a brand new multi-location project such as a chain of restaurants or nationwide retail outlets. 

At Signature Graphics, we have identified 4-steps that simplify the difficult task of creating a dynamic workspace. An experienced team of design professionals is hands-down the best choice when laying out the blueprint for a successful workspace that satisfies the demands of both clients and employees, while at the same time representing your brand accurately, and in a way that conveys a solid sense of your company’s identity to the world around it.

Our trained consultants will estimate your needs at the corporate level and at each re-branded multi-location area and plan the project to order, maintaining strict deadlines to maintain time constraints at each location. Your input is welcome and encouraged during each stage. Our large footprint allows us to provide you with a vast amount of collective knowledge and resources when planning and implementing projects of wide scope.

Step 1: Information Gathering to build your environmental branding

We efficiently collect pertinent data at every location, including the surfaces available for signage and creative elements to best represent your company’s vision in a way that is appropriately stimulating to consumers and workers alike.

Step 2: Making Your Vision A Reality

Signature takes the conceptual plans that were carefully designed in step 1 and uses our state of the art 120,000 sq. foot facility to build dynamic elements for your space. Signature has unique access to incorporate hundreds of construction and design materials; our skilled staff is adept at multiple manufacturing processes to make into reality unique environmental and design elements to make your brand stand out from the pack.

Step 3: Rollout

Because of our company’s considerable and widespread resources, Signature Graphics can quickly and expertly install and launch messaging for a successful rollout of your brand. We are skilled at the focused implementation of one key location, or of a highly orchestrated, simultaneous storefront launch of multiple units over a vast geographical area.

Step 4: Project Management and Launch

With an expert focus on time and budget constraints, and attentive to every detail, our Project Management Team has a single goal: to effectively implement a high-profile launch of your newly branded locations. We are experts at nationwide rollouts of franchised businesses, and can just as easily provide wholehearted attention to a single storefront. 

Request a quote today, and begin the journey to the workplace of your dreams!

We proudly use 3MTM graphic films and overlaminates.

Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on Wayfinding Signage: A Must for Your Business

Wayfinding Signage: A Must for Your Business

Tampa Airport Wayfinding Wall Signage

Do you have the challenge of organizing a system of directional signage or visual cues to help visitors to your location navigate their way around a large or possibly confusing area?

Wayfinding signs and graphics help hospitals, college campuses, museums, amusement parks, and loads of other businesses and organizations provide an easy to understand guide for their visitors to use when trying to locate certain places and find their way around.

When large or tricky to navigate areas might normally cause people to easily become lost, wayfinding signage is one of our specialties at Signature, and our team of designers can assist you in providing enthralling visuals along walkways and roadways that are both clear to understand and appealing to look at.

Design Challenges of Wayfinding Signage

The challenge of developing an effective wayfinding system lies in making an easy to understand, uncomplicated system of maps, floor plans, building directories, and other visual cues that direct the public and ease stress among your visitors, relaying essential information in the most straightforward way possible. All flow of traffic must be taken into consideration, both indoors and out.

Although it is best to keep designs free of unnecessary information for this purpose, it is wise and business-minded to incorporate elements of your unique brand, including brand signs, into the design, while still maintaining ease of navigation and simplicity of use. Choices in color, fonts/text, and size of design all present unique visual challenges when dealing with passersby on foot, and those decisions especially require extra planning and careful consideration if your signs will be displayed along roadways.

Wayfinding Branding: Get Started Today

Let our talented and professional design team help you make these important decisions about wayfinding branding, providing experience and knowledge to blend your brand with wayfinding signs to create navigational tools that are unique to your purpose, and that will imbue all the qualities that you wish your brand to convey. Contact us today to request a quote.

We proudly use 3MTM graphic films and overlaminates.

Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on Fleet Graphics and Color Psychology to Boost Brand Recognition

Fleet Graphics and Color Psychology to Boost Brand Recognition

The effect of color on people’s emotions has been a topic of study for centuries. In the modern era, the thoughtful use of color in product packaging, logo, and advertising is an essential part of branding and marketing.

Effective Use of Color Can Boost Sales

Fleet graphics are increasingly useful in advertising, as commute times in cities have steadily been on the increase. While people instinctively learn to block out the constant influx of advertisements online and in print, product marketing along roadways and in pedestrian areas becomes a more useful tool.

Eye-catching, colorful compositions will help you to establish brand recognition and increase sales. The use of color psychology to project a desired mood is a tool that has been proven to be effective for decades.

What Mood Are You Trying To Project In Your Ads?

Many studies have linked how certain colors affect people’s moods and buying habits. An estimated 62-90% of a human’s decision making and assessment of a viewed object is based upon just the color of the object.

Color can be used to reach specific target demographics, as the perception of color can be affected by age, gender, and cultural differences. Our Design and Print Service can work closely with you to make the most eye-catching Fleet Graphics for your business and project the desired mood to your potential customers.

How can certain dominant color choices affect the desired response in the design of your Fleet Graphics? Here are a few examples:

Red: Proven to stimulate the central nervous system and increase appetite, red has such a profound effect on exciting the viewer that clinical environments rarely employ the use of red or it’s analogous colors (yellow and orange) to prevent patients from becoming agitated or having increased blood pressure. This color is a natural choice for injecting an element of excitement into your advertising. Red has a positive effect on stimulating impulse shoppers.

Blue: Blue is firmly linked to feelings of calm. In advertising, the perception of blue being stable and reliable makes it a popular choice for corporate logo design. Royal blue is known to be attractive to impulse shoppers. Studies have shown that blue, one of nature’s favorite colors for mold, is an appetite suppressant. It is a rare color in natural foods (blueberries being one exception) and a poor color choice for convenience foods.

Yellow: Known to increase appetite and improve overall mood. Yellow is an attention grabber and projects confidence. It is used by food manufacturers to convey that consuming or buying a product will produce feelings of happiness. However, yellow can cause eye strain when used in advertisements and is also linked with feelings of frustration and anger.

Green: Often positively linked with a healthy environment, plants, and nature, green can sometimes give the consumer the impression that a product or service is “expensive”, so this can produce a negative or positive result, depending on what the target demographic is.

Violet: The traditional color of royalty; in ancient Rome, only the wealthy and royalty could afford to buy purple dye: the manufacture of which required huge numbers of rare sea snails to procure enough pigment to make a tiny amount. People still associate purple with quality or wealth. Purple is also associated with spirituality in western, eastern, and new age religions.

Ready to dazzle your potential new customers with colorful, engaging and targeted visuals? Request a quote from us today to further explore the growing media of Fleet and Specialty Graphics.

We proudly use 3MTM graphic films and overlaminates.

Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on Environmental Branding to Strengthen Your Retail Marketing

Environmental Branding to Strengthen Your Retail Marketing

A Small History of Environmental Branding

In the 1970s, fine artists started to use rundown and abandoned city areas that had previously been considered public eyesores to create art galleries. They hoped to build artistic sandboxes for a small group of friends who loved the arts, in hopes that it would organically grow within its urban setting of many cultures and ideas.

Many of these projects helped to transform ghettos and other struggling areas into flourishing and popular neighborhoods over time.

This trend that favored imagination over a high budget has paved the way for modern designers to transform otherwise wasted and unwanted spaces in a similar manner.

Signature specializes in turning unused or underused surfaces into eye-catching, vibrant canvases for specialty graphics to boost your business and build your brand.

Why Environmental Signage and Retail Graphics are Important

Everybody is drowning in marketing every day. It’s no secret that consumers are barraged with a staggering number of ads per day.

The number of marketing messages the average adult is exposed to varies greatly from study to study; Forbes estimated in 2017 that the average adult is exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 ads each day. The struggle to capture the attention of the buyer is more challenging each day.

How to Strengthen Your Environmental Branding

With the help of our design team, Signature can help you place your advertising message in imaginative, innovative, and highly memorable places. By using non-traditional outdoor spaces in an aesthetic, fun, and visionary manner, consumers can be won over by ad art that works effectively with its’ surroundings in a thoughtful manner.

Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on To Reface Or Replace, That Is The Question

To Reface Or Replace, That Is The Question

Before and after graphic reface

All good things come to an end, including signage, but that doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch. Refacing old signs is a smart, cost-effective way to give your brand-new life. However, it’s also important to know when it’s time to replace worn-down or broken signs.

Give Your Signs A Facelift

Your outdoor signage is the first thing your customers see before they come into your store, and it’s essential to make an excellent first impression. If your sign is old and faded, you can’t market your brand effectively, so it may be time to reface your space.

Refacing signs is an inexpensive method that covers your current sign with digitally printed vinyl to make it look new. Signature Graphics offers nationwide service and will professionally install your store-front signage so you can put your best face forward.

Pros:

  • Cost-effective, temporary method to update signage
  • Refacing can be done within a current frame
  • Does not require new permits if the frame is intact
  • Easy way to update old without demolishing existing sign

Cons:

  • Vinyl covers will pick up defects
  • Damage to the frame, chips in paint or cracks will eventually show through the cover
  • Sign location can make refacing difficult
  • Vinyl covers are not a permanent solution

Know When It’s Time To Start Fresh

If your signs are extremely damaged, or the frame is unstable, it’s time to invest in a new sign. Complete replacement may also be required for new building occupants with old signage, as the old frame design may not work with their brand.
Since refacing is not a permanent fix, replacing damaged signs can also be more cost-effective in the long run.

Pros:

  • New signs can refresh your brand logo to attract prospective customers
  • Creating a new sign gives you complete creative and stylistic control
  • Upgrade frames and signs with higher quality materials

Cons:

  • Brand new structures are more costly and may require permits
  • New signs may not conform to the current framework

Signature graphics use 3M™ graphic films and overlaminates, so you know you’re getting premium graphics designed to last. Our team will work with you to create the most compelling signs to market your brand properly.

Learn more about how Signature Graphics can give you the best signage options with our products and services. Call us at 800-356-3235 or contact us online.

Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on Full And Partial Wraps: Equally Good Investments For Your Needs

Full And Partial Wraps: Equally Good Investments For Your Needs

Clear Fruit graphics on semi truck

Image is everything; at least it is in the marketing world. This is especially true of your fleet graphics since consumers spend an average of 18 hours per week in their vehicles looking at your brand.

Whether you have a large budget or are looking for something cost-effective, your brand can benefit from full or partial wrap graphics. It’s up to you to decide what you need, but both options will keep your brand looking sharp on the road.

Full Wraps

With 70% of consumers influenced by out-of-home advertising, why not give your brand the greatest advantage with mobility? A full wrap will cover your fleet vehicles from top to bottom to create a full-fledged mobile billboard.

Though full wraps are a more expensive branding option, they offer advantages such as:

  • The ability to change your fleet vehicles colors and protect their paint jobs
  • Mobile advertising on a larger scale
  • A long-term investment in quality vinyl that lasts for several years
  • Complete coverage on bumpers, sides, hoods, and windows

Consistent branding across your fleet is necessary for a uniform, and practical approach, and Signature Graphics provides vinyl products that withstand degrading elements on the road.

Partial Wraps

Branding on a budget is easier with the flexibility and creative freedom that come with partial wraps. Partial wraps cover a portion of your vehicle and are typically utilized for fleets with smaller vehicles.

If you wish to keep the color of your vehicles, partial wraps are a safe bet and can incorporate your vehicle’s color into the brand.

Check out partial wraps if you’re looking for:

  • A cheaper alternative to full wraps that still effectively markets your brand
  • Wraps that are easily changed to coincide with brand specials and promotions
  • Creative freedom with varying degrees of coverage for your vehicles

We work with our customers from concept to installation to create custom vinyl graphics that meet your needs. We proudly use 3M™ graphic films and overlaminates, so you know you’re getting premium graphics designed to last.

Whether you’re looking to remove and replace current graphics or design your brand from scratch, we have the tools and services to help you get the job done. Call Signature Graphics at 800-356-3235 or contact us online to learn more.

Posted in NewsLeave a Comment on Save On Time And Money With Our Safe Removal Tips

Save On Time And Money With Our Safe Removal Tips

Changing your fleet graphics or returning your rental vehicles means you’ll need to take extra care during removal.

Believe it or not, effective removal starts with effective installation.

Start From The Beginning

Saving money on inexpensive graphics and installation may be tempting, but it can come back to haunt you in costly removals. Low-quality vinyl sticks during removal, making more work for you in the long run.

It’s also important to avoid using primer during installation as it can separate laminates from the vinyl and leave behind adhesive residue that is a nightmare to clean. Investing in a quality graphics installer with reliable products is your best bet at guaranteeing a seamless application.

Removal Do’s & Don’ts

Do protect yourself: Always wear gloves when removing vinyl wraps with a heat gun. The vinyl must reach a specific temperature for removal, which can burn your skin.

Don’t rush: Apply even pressure with spread fingers when you begin to pull off graphics. The process should be slow since quickly tugging at the vinyl can cause it to tear or separate from the laminate.

Do know the lifespan of your graphics: Depending on the longevity of the vinyl, your graphics could be more challenging to remove. Climate and graphic location on your vehicles can affect the amount of wear and tear.

Don’t use abrasive materials: Beware using certain chemicals for removal as they can damage the paint of your vehicle. Metal razors also pose a risk for chipping paint resulting in a higher final expense if you rent your fleet.

Do find a graphics company: Graphics providers and installers have effective methods to remove your fleet graphics and can help you find the best removal option.

Signature Graphics offers vinyl wraps for all kinds of fleet vehicles. We will keep your fleet looking sharp from creation to installation and proudly use 3M™ laminates and overlays to provide quality images that will remove effectively.

To learn more about our services and how Signature Graphics can meet all your graphics needs, call us at 800-356-3235 or contact us online.