Author Archives: Doug

What sort of sign materials should you choose?

A Guide to Sign Materials: Which Is Best for Your Business, Message or Event?

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Choosing the right sign materials can be a real head-scratcher: What kind of materials are available? What are the relative advantages of each? What will give you the most “bang for your buck” in terms of being cost-effective?

At Sign Art Etc., we offer a wide range of sign options to choose from, specializing in creating signage that will meet the unique needs of your business, brand, message or event. With that in mind, here is a guide to the three major materials most commonly used:

Vinyl backdrop for step and repeat areaVinyl
Vinyl is one of the premier sign materials available, offering a high degree of aesthetic flexibility at a low cost. With digital printing, there are virtually no limits to what you can print. As long as your image or text is the proper resolution, you can create vivid signs using thousands of possible colors. Other advantages of vinyl include:

  • Water and weather-resistant. Vinyl typically comes in a few different varieties, including matte, scrim, gloss and mesh. While all varieties are water-resistant, mesh and scrim are known to stand up to the elements very effectively and are less likely to rip or tear than fabric.
  • Natural sheen and gloss. Vinyl signs and backdrops are naturally eye-catching since the printing process results in a glossy finish. Matte finishes are also possible.
  • Low cost. An 8×8 vinyl backdrop from Sign Art Etc. can cost less than $100, while the fabric equivalent can cost nearly three times that amount.
  • No wrinkling. The stiffness of vinyl signs allows them to be rolled and unrolled without creases and wrinkles forming. They also resist damage from the wind.
  • Easy storage. Vinyl will roll up for easy tube storage and stacking.
  • Versatility. Of course, the best thing about vinyl is that it is supremely versatile: These signs are used to great effect both indoors and outdoors and for nearly every type of business or enterprise. Whether you are looking for a red carpet backdrop, banner for a convention or trade show, or a celebratory sign for an office party, vinyl is a great choice.
Retractable, portable vinyl banners for trade shows, product launches and other events.

Vinyl banners are durable, easy to transport and effectively catch the eye


Fabric 
For years, fabric wasn’t only the traditional choice for flexible signs and banners, it was the only choice. Yet even in a more limited field, fabric could be a very pleasing and cost-effective option. Typical choices for fabrics include polyester or a poly blend. Organic materials like cotton or wool are less common since they attract mildew and can degrade over time when exposed to the elements. Here are a few advantages to fabric signs:

  • Long-term durability. Fabrics are quite resilient, due in part to to the ink being permanently bonded to the fibers. This means the ink is less likely to chip, smudge, get pulled off by tape or fade over time.
  • Less glare. While vinyl can be given a matte coating, fabric tends to be naturally matte, making them better for photographing and giving them a more pleasing look.
  • More realistic imagery. Images printed on fabric look sharper and brighter, due to the fact that the printing process isn’t built on the “individual dot” printing process of vinyl.
  • Washable. If your sign gets dirty, simply treat it like you would any cloth material and wash it. Take care to observe any suggestions to keep colors bright, but otherwise washing allows you to use your signs over and over again.
  • Luxury. A fabric sign is a true signal that your organization means business. The luxury and confidence that you exude with a premium fabric sign simply can’t be beat!
Corrugated plastic signs are often used in personal applications. Corrugated plastic signs are often used in personal applications.

Corrugated Plastic Yard Signs
While less commonly used, corrugated plastic does have some distinct advantages in specific sign applications. Yard signs – designed for high-volume production at a low cost, particularly when associated with a local political campaign – are ideal candidates for corrugated plastic. They are flexible and can be read clearly from a great distance at many different angles. However, in larger applications, they are difficult to store and prone to chipping.

Having trouble deciding which material is right for you? Sign Art Etc. has you covered! We provide full-service custom sign, graphics and marketing solutions ready to fit your unique needs, including vinyl banners, vinyl and fabric backdrops, retractable banner stands, yard signs and more. It would be a pleasure to assist you.

Make the most out of your fall party!

Fall Themed Party Ideas: Make Yours the Event of the Season

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Autumn represents a season of change and transition, whether it’s celebrating the start of football, easing into the familial comfort of Thanksgiving or just relishing the changing of the leaves. If you’re looking for fall themed party ideas that will make yours the event of the season, here are the top three things to consider.

Decor
Even if you are hosting your party inside, setting a fall atmosphere is crucial. However, the usual natural aspects of autumn – dried leaves, twigs and hay – may prove to be nasty allergens and difficult to clean up later. Besides, as beautiful as they may be, who wants to risk a stray leaf in their punch? Instead of bringing in stray leaves and having to clean them up, why not just have a printed backdrop of a gorgeous fall nature scene at your party?

A customized banner or backdrop can be a great way to get the party going and have decoration for next year! Perfect for picture taking, a backdrop can lend the party a distinct seasonal feeling without all the chill and cleanup of nature. If you want to add an extra air of authenticity, consider grabbing a few pumpkins and scattering them around your venue.

Food
The flavors of fall are distinct and wide-ranging: a mix of spice and sweet, warm and hearty. Take advantage of seasonal ingredients like apples, pumpkins, squash, pears, cranberries, beets, broccoli and more with rich, harvest-inspired appetizers at your party! A nutmeg and cinnamon apple punch can also be a tasty and refreshing treat for thirsty party goers. Or, try a seasonal spin on a Moscow Mule, with this recipe by Celebration.com.

“Autumn represents a season of change and transition.”

Festivities
Fall is a time of enjoying things before the winter comes and has everyone holed up inside. Make sure your party has plenty of music, games and other forms of seasonal merriment. Try going beyond the traditional bobbing for apples and cornhole and consider these fun activities:

  • Fill a jar with candy corn and have your guests guess how many pieces there are in the jar. The one closest to the actual total wins the entire jar, or another prize of your choosing.
  • Play “Pumpkin Card Ninja” by having guests throw playing cards into a jack-0-lantern and see who gets the most in.
  • Give each player a plastic straw and, without using their hands, have them try and blow a leaf across a flat surface to a designated area. The player that gets their leaf closest to the goal wins!
  • Play pumpkin bowling with plastic bowling pins and a small, unripe pumpkin.

Of course, for all your backdrop or signage needs, Sign Art Etc has you covered. Call us today to learn more!

Keep your signs simple and they'll really pop!

Designing Eye-Catching Signs: How to Make Yours ‘POP’

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Designing eye-catching signs is somewhere between science and art: You want something that reflects your business or organization that is visually pleasing, but not so bland that people walk right by without noticing. Whether it’s a banner, custom backdrop or more detailed signage, here are a few key guidelines to ensure your signs draw the eye:

Take Inspiration From Your Business

Design should begin with identifying which features are central to your organization or enterprise. If you’re selling ice cream, images of ice cream cones on your sign are a great way to give people a taste of what they might expect out of your business. Similarly, a dentist might have a cartoon illustration of a tooth or a toothbrush.

“The simpler and more striking you can make a sign, the better.”

Go for Simple and Clean, Limiting Detail

While it may be tempting to insert a photo-realistic image on your sign, the simpler you can make featured images, the better. Signs are meant to grab attention quickly and raise interest from those who may be just passing by.

The human brain is only able to take in a certain amount of detail in one glance, so the simpler and more striking you can make a sign, the more likely it will quickly make the impression you intend. This is why so many signs use stylized icons or cartoon representations rather than photos.

Use Only One or Two Fonts – and Keep Text to a Minimum

The way you use fonts for lettering is key. Too many different fonts – both shapes and sizes – on a single sign and your custom banner may look chaotic or incoherent. Use the same font for large blocks of text, and your sign can seem boring or, worse, unreadable.

A solid best practice is to limit yourself to one or two fonts on your sign: One style for your logo, event or business name, another for smaller explanatory text. The second font can be used to create a contrast from the main font. Even so, it may be beneficial to stick to the same font family – serif or sans serif – on a single sign to help create a sense of harmony and flow.

The most effective, eye-catching signs combine readable text with simple icons. The most effective signs combine readable text with simple icons.

Don’t overwhelm your signs with text. Most people will spend less than a minute looking at your sign, meaning that if it’s bogged down with lots of text, chances are they won’t read it all anyway. Boil what you have to say down to a single sentence, with a 10-word maximum. Ideally, a sign should include a name and something similar to a slogan.

“Rounded shapes evoke a sense of calm and control.”

Use Bright, Warm Colors and Simple Shapes

You want your sign to draw the eye, and there’s no better way to do this than warm, bright colors. Identify the overall feeling you want to exude from your organization: Inviting? Leisurely? Serious? Knowledgeable? From there, choose bold, bright colors that project this feeling. Be careful though. In general, it is best to avoid harsh, aggressive colors like shades of neon since these may actually be difficult to look at.

Apply the same logic to the shapes you use, both as icons on the sign or in the shape of the banner itself. Even if you go with a standard rectangular shape for your sign, you can make it more dynamic by framing the text and logo with a contrasting shape. Rounded shapes evoke a sense of calm and control, while shapes with pointed angles are dynamic.

Don’t Forget a Call to Action

One of the most important elements of a sign is a call to action, or CTA. These simple turns of phrase are what inspire your viewers to do something and are what separate signage from art. Typically, these take on the form of a few words like “Call today for more details!” or “Visit our website to learn more!” But they can also be even more subtle. Just including a website, Twitter handle or a brand-approved hashtag can act as an effective CTA without being overly promotional.

Once your signs are designed, getting them printed on high-quality materials is the easy part. Get in touch with Sign Art Etc. to meet all your sign needs!

Don't lose your mind over your impending wedding!

Why You Should Hire a Wedding Planner: Staying Sane on Your Special Day

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Weddings are supported to be days of celebration and joy – but all too often, they end up a source of incredible stress. Coordinating potentially hundreds of guests, catering, entertainment, seating arrangements, photography and countless more other aspects of nuptials is a true feat of event engineering – which is why you should hire a wedding planner.

Think about it: Most people wouldn’t attempt to build an entire house on their own, without any professional help. So why would you think that building the event the begins your lasting, committed relationship would be any simpler? Hiring a professional planner can go a long way towards keeping you sane on your very special day and in the months leading up to it.

Here are some of the best ways a wedding planner can help:

Budgeting
With weddings, the sheer number of different decisions that need to be made makes the scope of things hard to see clearly – meaning that costs can easily spiral out of control. A wedding planner will take a set budget and be able to give you a variety of options within a certain range. They can vet vendors and get bids, acting as your advocate and keeping everything manageable.

Resources
With any luck, your wedding will be a one-time event in your life. Planners, on the other hand, put them together every day. As such, they have a wealth of resources and connections, ones you might never encounter, including ones that can be used as backup. If a supplier or vendor falls through, your wedding planner will be able to act quickly and slot in an alternative they trust at a moment’s notice.

A wedding planner will oversee every aspect of planning you special day. A wedding planner will oversee every aspect of planning you special day.

Mediation
Weddings should be about celebrating the love and connection of a bride and groom – but all too often, there are countless other voices all angling to be heard and to influence the ceremony. The opinions of two sets of parents, friends, bridesmaids, groomsmen and more can all make the happy couple feel like they’re being pulled in every direction. A planner can step in and act as a mediator between all the different parties, communicating what is required, registering advice (and complaints) and accommodating what needs to be accommodated.

Supervision
On the day of your wedding, you should be able to sit back and let the machine take over. The last thing a bride or groom – even the family and friends of a bride or groom – wants to do on their special day is to follow the catering staff around to make sure they are doing their jobs. In addition to the prep work, a wedding planner will oversee the actual execution of the event, managing all the various moving parts.

What’s Left for You?
Now that all the hard parts are taken care of, you and your betrothed are free to get creative and brainstorm ways to make your day even more special. One such idea incorporates our specialty — customized backdrops where you and your guests can have pictures taken. With SignArtEtc, you can design your own background or send us the desired images or texts and we’ll take it from there. Visit our site or call us today at 1-800-799-7436 to learn more.

A fall apple picking party can help celebrate the season!

Planning a Fall Apple Picking Party: A Few Sweet Tips

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With the crisp weather and beautiful foliage arriving in waves, there’s few better ways to take advantage of the season than a fall apple picking party. Whether as a fundraiser or simply a fun change of pace from the typical way to celebrate the season, your guests will love the opportunity to leave stocked with ripe, crisp apples. Here are a few tips to make your party a sweet sensation!

Choose your setting and check local orchards
Many local apple orchards have space that can be rented for events and special occasions, making them the perfect setting for a picking party. Call around to get good local rates and to make sure that the apples will be in season on the day of your event. You can locate an orchard near you by checking out pickyourown.org.

If you opt to have the party at home, that’s OK too: You can invite your friends and family for an hour or two to a local orchard, then head back to your house for a backyard barbecue and drinks.

fall apple picking partyApple picking bring families and friends together!

Decorate with rustic charm
Picking parties don’t need to be lavish – in fact, rustic or barnyard touches work well with the theme! Set out bushels of hay and blankets for guests to sit on, decorate with dried leaves and pumpkins and store your food and refreshments in picnic baskets. Including signage and customized banners can also help your event feel more special. Be sure to provide sturdy canvas or burlap sacks for guests to take their apples home.

Apple picking tips
When your guests are out doing the actual picking, be sure to give them the following tips:

  • Apples on the outer branches tend to be the ripest.
  • Look for apples that are firm, unbruised and lacking spots of discoloration.
  • Lifting and twisting apples makes it easier to separate them from the stem.
  • Limit shaking the entire trees or branches too vigorously, lest you find out what happened to Isaac Newton!
  • Be careful of bees and other stinging insects around the base of trees with an accumulation of overripe apples.

Some orchards even have dwarf trees where the fruit only grows about three feet off the ground. These can be perfect for young kids looking to pick an apple or two for themselves.

Delicious snacks
Snacks that integrate the sweet taste of apple is crucial for your party. Better Homes and Gardens has a variety of options you can easily prepare, including Apple Pie Pops, Pork Sandwich with Tarragon-Apple Slaw and – of course – Mulled Apple Cider (both virgin and spiked). Want something even easier and  delicious? Bring along peanut butter, caramel or chocolate sauce or cheddar spread, cut the apples you just picked into bite-sized slices, and have a no-heat dipping bar!

Party activities
The main event is fun, but it likely won’t last the entire length of the party. Consider these other delightful fall pastimes:

  • Make candied or caramel dipped apples.
  • Have apple sack races.
  • Have a pumpkin or apple rolling contest, where each player must use a stick to roll their apple or pumpkin to the finish line.
  • Play apple tic-tac-toe.
  • Hang donuts on a string and have your guest try and eat them without using their hands.

Send your guests home with recipes
Doing a little advanced research and printing out a few of your favorite apple-related recipes is a great way to send your guests home with something useful – and a perfect opportunity to make your party more memorable.

If you need custom signage for your apple party, or any other of your event needs, trust Sign Art Etc.