Signage for Property Management: A Comprehensive Guide| Yesco

With the many responsibilities involved in managing commercial and residential properties, it can be easy to overlook the importance of having a strategy in place that focuses on every aspect of your property’s signage. From design, materials, placement, and maintenance, you have unique requirements to match your brand and messaging, and your signage is your tangible introduction to the audience you want to appeal to.

Understanding the Purpose of Signage in Property Design

Each type of commercial and residential sign has a primary purpose. An exterior sign may help people locate your property, advertise vacancies, or differentiate your property from others along busy thoroughfares. Inside your building, signage can direct visitors to elevators, identify rooms and spaces, or be used to restrict access.

However, with a proper understanding of the impact your property signage makes on your audience, you can create lasting impressions and clearly establish your location from the competition with well-designed, cohesively planned property signage. For instance, wayfinding signage, used to help visitors get from one point to another on your property, also provides opportunities to establish strong brand recognition, build trust, and add elements of class, creativity, and distinction from the moment a person steps on your property until they reach their destination.

Each type of sign should also serve a purpose on its own, but be part of an overall strategy that unites exterior and interior signage. That strategy should focus on the viewer experience, whether the person influenced by the sign is a tenant, guest, staff, or delivery personnel. It should take into consideration the challenges people encounter and the apprehension that arises when trying to navigate through new places. Consistency is imperative and, to be effective, it’s vital that your signage provide the information they need, in the moment, to make their experience a pleasant one.

There are a number of factors to take into consideration with your commercial or residential property signage. These include blending the right colors to support your brand and attract attention, signage placement for maximum visibility, how to illuminate the sign so it can be easily read any time of day, and which durable, sustainable, and cost-effective materials to make your signage from. Working with a professional sign design and installation company can make your job easier.

Creating a Consistent Brand Image With Signage

Regardless of whether you require signage for one property or many, consistency in design, color, and text matters to your audience. It gives your property a professional appearance and provides a comforting environment that sends signals to tenants and visitors that your property is well-cared for, safe, and, in the case of ADA signage, inclusive.

The signage you deploy throughout your property should reinforce your brand at every opportunity. Consistency builds trust when your property signage provides relevant information with familiar designs, colors, and directional icons and symbols. Use your signage to project the image you want to impress upon your audience. With the wide selection of sign types and materials, there really are few limits when it comes to finding creative ways to communicate clearly in the often-brief time you have to grab attention. A centralized signage content platform helps keep signage on brand when new locations are added or signs need replacement.

Coordinate Wayfinding Signage Throughout Your Property

Effective way finding signage makes it easy for visitors to find parking, for potential tenants to locate rental and administrative offices, and tenants to get found by customers and clients. Placement is important because commercial and residential wayfinding signs should be visible from cars and along pathways and in hallways. Keep in mind that wayfinding and navigational signage must be easy to read and understand because audiences are usually on the move. That’s one reason universally recognized symbols and icons work well with wayfinding signage. The people arriving on your property may have important appointments to keep and good wayfinding signage reduces stress and worry about arriving on time.

There are four types of navigational signage for you to deploy.

Directional wayfinding guides the flow of traffic and is important at junctions where decisions are made.
Identification wayfinding lets a person set their course with signage found attached to or outside buildings and in concourses and lobbies.
Informational wayfinding can be used to make announcements and provide context to locations with plaques and marquees.
Regulatory wayfinding protects both visitors, tenants, and workers from harm and your property from legal liabilities. It’s also important that your wayfinding signage be ADA-compliant and that it invites inclusivity and access for individuals with visual or other physical impairments.

Strategic and attractive wayfinding signage makes your property a more welcoming place and merges function with form to create memorable experiences.

Choose Sign Materials for Long-Term Investment

Your signage may send the first signal people receive about your property. If the sign material is substandard or in need of repair, they will probably make assumptions about your property based on those perceptions. Quality does matter, and the materials you select should stand up to the weather, endure wear and tear from handling, and hold color qualities and vibrancy for years. Your property signage is a long-term investment for brand visibility, advertising, and building trust with your audience.

Cutting corners to save money often results in designs fading with time, cracks appearing in the sign’s surface, or inconsistent illumination that requires continual and potentially expensive upkeep. Fortunately, it’s easy to match the right material to your customized sign designs and use UV-resistant coatings, pliable plastics and moisture-resistant, versatile vinyl to keep signs looking great. Working with a property signage professional can help you find signage material that fits your budget and matches your brand’s standards of excellence.

Plan for Repairs and Maintenance

Your signs are performing their duties 24/7 and sometimes under extreme variations in temperature and weather conditions. It’s inevitable that the constant handling and exposure to sunlight, moisture, and wind can cause your signage to lose a little of its luster. That places an importance on regular scheduled maintenance and working with sign repair companies that can get parts and match materials quickly and promptly from a network of suppliers. Budgeting for routine upkeep can help you catch small problems before they grow into large ones that impact your business advertising and customer relationships or create potential liabilities. Suggested maintenance and repairs you should budget for include:

Regular cleanings to remove external surface dirt and grime
Inspection of fittings and hardware
Checking on the integrity of the surface due to cracks or damage
Replacing and upgrading lighting fixtures and bulbs
Inspections for damage to due pest infestation
Design touch-ups to keep colors consistent and vibrant

Planning ahead and keeping your signs in great shape can avoid expensive surprises in the future.

Use a Professional and Experienced Property Sign Installation Company

Save yourself headaches by working from the start with a professional sign installation company that understands the challenges that can arise throughout signage installation. Some of the problems a professional can help you with include setting goals, budgets, and timelines and determining the ideal location for your signs based on visibility, traffic, and local regulations. A professional sign installer will guide you through the licensing, permitting, and insurance requirements for your sign’s installation.

Look for a company that has extensive experience with a track record of successful installations and that provides excellent customer service. Improperly installed signs not only reflect poorly on your property, they also pose serious safety issues if they should fall and result in expensive liability insurance claims. In fact, because proper sign installation is so important, many cities and towns require hiring professional signage installation professionals.