A shopfront sign is made once and read for years, so the decisions are best taken before anything is made. This is the list we work through with a client at the site survey, in the order it is easiest to settle.
1. What it must say
Your name comes first, and what you do if your name does not say it. A sign read from a passing car gets a glance, so leave the rest, such as the phone number, hours and web address, for the door and the window, where people stand still.
2. The space it goes on
Measure the fascia or the wall, width and height, and photograph the front straight on and from across the street. Note what is in the way: a canopy, a downpipe, an air-conditioner, a neighbour’s sign.
3. Its size against the by-law
Under the City of Johannesburg’s 2018 Outdoor Advertising By-law, one unlit sign of up to 8 m² on your own premises, showing your trade, name, address, telephone number and hours, needs no permit, nor does a lit sign of up to 12 m² built into the face of the building. A larger sign, a freestanding one, or one projecting over a public street needs the City’s approval first. Our check is free; the details are in our guide to sign permits in Johannesburg.
4. The landlord, and the centre
If you rent, read the lease for what it says about signs, and ask the landlord in writing before the sign is designed. Shopping centres often set the size, position, colours and lighting of tenant signs, and approve drawings first; ask for their rules at the start. If the sign needs a permit, the application includes the written consent of the registered owner of the property.
5. Lit or unlit
If you trade after dark, or your street is busy at night, a lit sign earns its cost. A lightbox shines through its face; built-up letters can be lit from the front or from behind, so that they stand in a halo of light on the wall. A lit sign needs power at the fascia and a qualified electrician to connect it, and it changes the by-law’s limit: up to 12 m² if it is built into the face of the building.
6. The kind of sign
- A flat fascia panel with your lettering: the simplest, quoted per job.
- Built-up letters, each one fabricated and fixed to the wall or fascia, with depth and shadow of their own: quoted per job.
- A lightbox fascia with LED lighting: quoted per job, the electrical connection quoted with it.
Final quote after site survey: size, materials and fixing decide the price.
7. Materials for Johannesburg’s weather
Highveld sun fades cheap vinyl and printed faces, and summer storms bring wind and hail. Ask what each part is made of and how it is fixed: outdoor-grade aluminium, acrylic and vinyl, fixed into sound brickwork rather than plaster alone.
8. Readable from the street
Before you approve the design, see it at its size: a drawing of the sign on a photograph of your front, or a full-size print taped up. Look at it from across the road and from a car at the speed of the street. Contrast counts for more than colour: light on dark, or dark on light.
9. The same name online
Google asks that a Business Profile’s name reflect the business’s real-world name, as used consistently on its storefront, website and stationery. Your sign, your profile and your website should say the same name, and the hours on your door should be the hours online. We set up the Google Business Profile with the sign if you need one.
10. All of it in writing
Before you pay a deposit, have a drawing with the dimensions, materials, colours and fixing; what the price includes, from design and making to fitting, the electrical connection, any permit and taking down the old sign; the dates; and the final quote after the site survey.
Opening a new shop?
The sign, the window graphics, your Google Business Profile and a website are four suppliers for most businesses, and one for ours. The Open Your Doors bundle brings them together for opening day, quoted per job.