Randburg is Northcliff’s neighbour, so it is as close to us as our own streets. It is also a different kind of place to sign: busy main roads, a commercial centre, showrooms, and office and light-industrial parks.
What is asked for here
On roads like Bram Fischer Drive and Malibongwe Drive, a sign has to be read from a moving car in traffic, by someone deciding whether to turn in. That calls for built-up letters with depth, or a lightbox that is still legible at night, set high and clear of the clutter of its neighbours. At the entrance to a business park, a pylon with a panel for each tenant does the work of a dozen small signs.
Inside, the same businesses need reception signs and branded walls, and the trade and delivery vehicles based in Randburg’s industrial areas need wraps or decals that carry the same brand.
Before a sign goes up here
Randburg is in the City of Johannesburg, under the 2018 Outdoor Advertising By-law. Three things in it come up often on Randburg’s roads:
- A sign over the pavement. The exemption for an unlit sign of up to 8 m² covers only one that does not project over a public street. A projecting sign above a shop on a main road needs the City’s approval.
- A pylon at a business park. The exemptions for business signs cover signs on a building, not a freestanding one. A pylon needs the City’s approval, building plans unless the City exempts it as minor building work, and a registered engineer’s certificate once it stands.
- The N1. Close to the N1 Western Bypass, no sign may stand within the prohibited areas at its on- and off-ramps, and the City considers the roads authority’s comments on an application.
We plan for each of these at the survey, so the design and the application are made together.