How to select a signwriter

There are numerous ways to select a signwriter.
If you are a private individual wanting a ‘one-off’ sign for a ‘one-off’ purpose, say a private House For Sale sign or something to put in the window of a car for sale, you won’t want to go much further than the one or two local signwriters to get a price. Make sure that you provide each company you are getting a price from with the same basic information in terms of colours, size, etc. Advise them also if you want them to provide the mounting for your sign. If at all possible supply them with a suitable file to use to ensure their time is a minimal chargeout. Time is after all, how signwriters make their money.

If you are one of New Zealand’s many thousands of SMEs with a single location or site, your needs over a period of time, are likely to be quite substantial. They will range from the graphics required that will define your visual presence in the marketplace, your starting point, such as your logo and the colours that will be used in conjunction with your core visual image, through to the concept of how these are used on business stationery, sales brochures, company vehicles, company premises and even assistance with your website and your ‘brand’. 

The signwriter for these functions needs to be chosen with some consideration as you are likely to be working with them over some years if the skill and service is good and the pricing keen. Having said that, price and service are just two of the variables that should be considered in the total mix.

Before choosing your signwriter, talk to business acquaintances that can detail their experiences. See if any signwriters local to you can be recommended by acquaintances. Actively seek out examples of the work of those who are recommended or those you are considering working with. Any NZSDA member will be happy to provide references to local businesses they have undertaken work for as well as providing a visual reference to their capabilities.

If you are planning to be around for some time, do not let price alone dictate who you work with. The effective life of your graphic imagery should be important to you. It is a pointless exercise to save a few hundred dollars at the outset to find that the quality of materials used was not up to par, and that the life expectancy of the signage is considerably less than you either expected or, worse still, specified. In fact John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) summed it up most succinctly when he said....

“It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money...that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the things it was bought to do.

The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot...it cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run.
And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.”

Any good signwriter will make it his business to catalogue your files for future use, ensuring you have satisfaction with the work undertaken but also with respect to ongoing maintenance and your likely future needs.

So, to recap, after you have conducted your research ideally you should be taking the relationship further with the sign company or signwriter that offers the best quality for the best value with the best service and follow-up. There’s one tenet used often in the sign industry – it goes something like this....

• Price
• Quality
• Service

     Pick two

The reason for this is that it is impossible to consistently deliver on all three so it therefore becomes important to find the best balance of the factors that are important to you as the client, so just be aware that there must be a degree of flexibility in determining that balance.

There is a third tier of sign buyers who need to apply yet another set of criteria in selecting a signwriter. These are the larger companies with multiple outlets or premises, often spread right throughout the country and even overseas.

Generally this group needs a signwriter who can effectively survey each site that signage will be required at, someone who can recognise likely problems ahead of them eventuating, who is aware of the different rules, by-laws and district plans that can or will affect the signage. A signwriter who is versed in dealing with people at different levels within the same organisation who will have some influence on what signage is required at each location as very rarely can the same sign be installed in multiple locations without adaption of some kind, they may need some form of safety or site certification and design engineering capabilities. It is possible that corporate imagery will have been sourced from an internal marketing department or some form of advertising or PR agency. It is also possible that the signage contract in this instance will not involve any design creation but rather the creation of brand or corporate imagery (signage) for use in different situations. The company you choose to undertake this work should be considered carefully to ensure they have the organisational skills required and they will become a determining factor in the success of the project.

There are however, plenty of instances where signwriters have been responsible for creating corporate graphics that have subsequently been widely used by architects and designers working to briefs supplied by clients.

In this instance the research stage of appointing a signwriter you will need to consider either the size of the company that will be undertaking the work or, alternatively, the network of craftsmen who can effectively handle what should be a contracted working relationship as the ability to service multiple sites spread over a large geographical area is likely to be critical in the decision making process.

Again, a good starting point would be a recommended member of the NZSDA as the network of members stretches nationwide and member companies represent large, medium and small sign making companies.