How to give your sign company a brief that gets you exactly what you imagined the first time
The gap between what a client imagines and what a sign company produces is almost always a gap in the brief, not a gap in capability. Sign companies can produce almost anything — the constraint is usually that they did not fully understand what was wanted. And in most cases, the client did not know how to communicate it clearly enough for the production team to act on it without guessing.
What a good brief actually needs
A good brief does not need to be technical. You do not need to know what material to specify or what resolution the artwork needs to be. What a sign company actually needs to know is: where is this sign going, how far away will people be reading it from, what do you want people to feel or do when they see it, and what is the deadline.
Everything else is our job to work out
Everything else — the material, the finish, the fixing method, the artwork specification — is the sign company’s job to determine based on the answers to those questions.
Describe the outcome, not the product
The clients who get the best results are the ones who describe the outcome they want rather than the product they think they need.
A photograph is worth more than a spec
The single most useful thing you can send with a brief is a photograph. A photograph of the space where the sign will go tells a sign company almost everything it needs to know about scale, context, existing colours and potential fixing points. Combined with a rough idea of what you want it to communicate and what your budget is, a photograph often provides enough information for a first quote and a design proposal without a site visit.
We work with clients at every level of brief clarity — from detailed technical specifications to a photograph and a phone call. If you are not sure how to describe what you want, get in touch and we will ask you the right questions.
A Photo Tells Us Almost Everything
Scale, context and fixing points, without a site visit needed.
No Technical Knowledge Required
Describe the outcome you want — we work out the material and method.
Clear Timelines From The Start
A good brief means fewer amends and a faster route to production.
UK Produced, Bracknell Based
Designed and produced from our Bracknell workshop.
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