We get a lot of orders for custom signs—after all, we’re Signs by Signways and that’s what we do. However, every company’s way of doing things is different, making the process of ordering your custom sign a little confusing. We try to keep things simple and direct, but for the sake of having all of your need-to-know’s in one place, we’re putting together a guide just for you! Let's begin with what to do if you've never ordered a custom sign and have no idea where to start:
First, double-check everything! From your size, orientation, to the text that you want—make sure you take a second to look back over your order and that everything is exactly how you want it. There are few things more frustrating than realizing that you didn’t even order what you wanted. One of the most common errors people make is with their text. To avoid mistakes, we directly copy and paste what you request onto the sign design. Read through the text box a few times to make sure everything is spelled correctly: names, numbers, and punctuation in particular.
Next, decide if you need reflective sheeting. For things like street names, parking signs, 911 signs, or anything that needs to be read clearly at night, reflective sheeting is the way to go. These signs take in light from multiple angles to illuminate the area around the text, making it easy to read for night-time drivers. This becomes particularly important for people with visibility issues that may need the extra contrast to read a sign. Reflective signs are also helpful during the darker winter days or gloomy overcast days; they also increase visibility during the rain!
Before you mount or hang your sign, you need to fully puncture the holes through the vinyl. These will be marked on your signs (from us) with a stark white dot that will be removed when you puncture through. Our metal signs have pre-drilled holes and we lay the printed and laminated vinyl on top. We do this to make sure you have the best quality print, but you do have to pierce through the print yourself. This is easily done with a tac, pen tip, nail, etc.: anything that’s small and pointy can do it!
Finally, decide how to put up the sign—do you want to bolt it to a metal sign post? Maybe you want to attach it to a fence. Either way, decide what you’d like in advance so that you have all of your materials ready when your sign arrives. You can nail or screw it into a wooden stake pushed into the ground. You can also bolt it using 3/8” bolts to a sign post. The easiest option is using either a sign post and zip ties or zip-tying it directly to a chainlink fence, if you have one!
If you’ve been interested in ordering a custom sign for your home or business but weren’t sure how to post it or what you’d even need to think about, start here! We want to make things as easy and simple as we can and we hope this helps. Let us know if there are any other questions you might have when it comes to your first custom sign order. We’ll be adding to this over the summer to make a thorough guide for you! Until then, check out your options for custom signs here at Signs by Signways.