5 Tips Choosing The Best Lobby Sign For Business

Make sure you choose a lob­by sign that fits your indus­try. What type of com­pa­ny is it for? A recep­tion sign for a law office might be dif­fer­ent from one for a mar­ket­ing agency. It’s best to look at what’s been done before to get a grasp of the type of signs peo­ple are using based on the indus­try they’re in. 

Check out our indus­tries page to see exam­ples from dif­fer­ent indus­tries. This is also a great way to get inspired because it’s often dif­fi­cult to know what you want before you know what’s possible.

We’re all for inno­va­tion, and some­times it’s good to break the rules. Depend­ing on your brand some unex­pect­ed over­lap can also pro­duce effec­tive results. So take a look at dif­fer­ent indus­tries to see if you can put a mod­ern twist on a tra­di­tion­al approach. You’ll be sur­prised with how often it works to your benefit.

When you first walk into your office, your sign has to be the first thing you see. Find your fea­ture wall, this could be the wall behind the recep­tion desk, a glass pan­el or even the desk itself. The type of wall you’re mount­ing your sign to, the col­or and tex­ture of the wall, all play an impor­tant role in decid­ing the type of sign you need. 

Not every sign will work on every wall.

Most lob­by signs are installed on dry­wall or sheetrock behind the recep­tion desk. In this case, your options are open. You can choose indi­vid­u­al­ly mount­ed let­ters if you pre­fer the look of float­ing letters.

If your wall is rough or uneven on the oth­er hand, tex­tured like ledge-stone, or brick or even with a wavy pat­tern, you may be bet­ter off going with a pan­el sign over indi­vid­u­al­ly mount­ing let­ters. Although it’s pos­si­ble to make your office sign from indi­vid­u­al­ly mount­ing sign let­ters on this type of wall, keep in mind there may be addi­tion­al costs involved when it comes to installing them.

The col­or of the wall will also decide the col­or and type of lob­by sign you need. If the wall col­or is dark and your logo col­ors are also dark, you may need to con­sid­er mak­ing your sign white, if your brand­ing guide­lines per­mit, or a light brushed met­al fin­ish to help it pop. If your lob­by sign needs to be in col­or, you may need to con­sid­er using an opaque back­ground pan­el to help sep­a­rate it from the wall.

Are you plan­ning on mov­ing any­time soon? Although our indi­vid­u­al­ly mount­ed 3D signs are easy to move, if your logo has a mil­lion lit­tle pieces and you plan on relo­cat­ing soon or often, you may be bet­ter off hav­ing 3D let­ters and sym­bols pre-mount­ed onto a back­ground pan­el. That way you will only need to move the one pan­el instead of sep­a­rate let­ters and sym­bols. The effect you get is often worth the effort so you will have to weigh the pros and cons.

Either way, we will guide you through the process, even help you recre­ate your instal­la­tion tem­plate if you can’t find it when you move. But think­ing down the line will help you plan a lob­by sign that works long term.

Ensur­ing your sign con­forms to your brand­ing usage guide­lines is key. When choos­ing a type of sign make sure your brand­ing guide­lines allow for any styl­is­tic choic­es you make. 

Brand­ing guide­lines typ­i­cal­ly for­bid chang­ing fonts, rear­rang­ing assets, and cer­tain col­or com­bi­na­tions. When brows­ing your brand­ing guide­lines, look for the fol­low­ing rules and make sure your choic­es comply:

• Logo Vari­a­tion Rules
• Improp­er or Unac­cept­able Logo Usage
• Brand Col­ors
• Brand Typog­ra­phy or Fonts
• Spac­ing and Margins

From the many options to choose from some take more time and mate­ri­als than oth­ers. For star­tups, non-prof­its and com­pa­nies on a tight bud­get not all options will make sense or be feasible. 

We offer options for all bud­get ranges. Office sign cost is impor­tant so take a look at the Aver­age Office Sign prices below to help you decide which sign is right for your business:

• $300 — $500 — Acrylic Signs with Vinyl Graph­ics or Small­er 3D signs
• $500 — $1000 — Aver­age Size 3D Office Lob­by Signs 
• $1000 — $1800 — Large Size or more com­plex Recep­tion signs with unique fin­ish­es, fine details and option­al back­ground panels.
• $1800 — $4500 — Very com­plex Office Lob­by signs and Back­lit signs with cus­tom back­ground pan­els or boxes.

Know­ing the bud­get you have to work with will get you start­ed on the right path for choos­ing the best sign for your busi­ness. The best way to know exact­ly how much your logo will cost to make in 3D is by send­ing us a cus­tom quote request for your sign. 

These 5 tips are a great start­ing point and are in no way an exclu­sive list. We have a num­ber of oth­er resources to help you along your way to pick­ing the best office lob­by sign. 

It may seem like a lot to take in but know you’re not alone— We are here to help! We’ve made just about every type of 3D sign under the sun so if you are ready to get start­ed mak­ing your lob­by sign, get a quote and we’ll help guide you through every step of the way!