Home Articles Showing customers their sign on their building before design starts Design time
Showing customers their sign on their building before design starts
Customers want to see the sign on their own building before they commit. A rough preview on their photo answers that without using designer hours.
Design time
Why customers ask to see it first
A price is a number. A sign is a thing on a wall. Most customers cannot picture one from the other, so they ask to see it first.
That is a reasonable request. They are about to spend real money on something permanent that every customer and passerby will see. They want to know whether the logo will be big enough, whether it will look odd next to the awning, and whether the color will fight the brick.
The shop's side of the story is different. Owners on sign forums describe what happens when they say yes. One designer described an office that asked for revision after revision, each with different versions of the sign and the logo, "superimposing on site survey photos" every time, and then ghosted the shop. This problem comes up in more than a dozen threads and is mentioned in many more.
Another owner wrote, "Sometimes I come up with a quick layout because it's a shot in the dark... then the customer loves it and wants to move forward and I feel like I'm producing a sub-par designed sign." The layout was fast, so it was not very good, and now the customer expects the final to look like it.
Both sides have a point. The customer needs to see something, and the shop cannot afford to design for free.
What it costs to do it by hand
Behind a mockup on a customer's building is a lot of small work. Someone opens the photo, finds the logo, cleans it up, scales it to the wall, adjusts it to the angle of the building, adds a shadow so it looks mounted, and exports the image. If the photo is poor, they ask for another.
For one customer, that is not much. Across a busy month of inquiries, it is a lot of time spent on people who have not paid anything. Some of them will go with a cheaper shop. Some will disappear. A few will say yes.
One owner wrote about the principle in a short line: "the first ten minutes are free." The trouble is that a mockup rarely stays at ten minutes. The customer asks for it bigger, then smaller, then in blue, and the free part is over.
A shop that does this by hand has to choose. Say yes to everyone, and lose designer hours. Say no to everyone, and lose the customers who will not buy without seeing it. Most shops pick a middle path that depends on how the customer looks that day, which is hard to apply fairly.
A rough preview on the customer's own photo
There is a third option, which is to let the customer do the rough version themselves.
The customer uploads a photo of their building and their logo. They drag the logo onto the wall and size it until it looks about right. They save the result. It comes to you attached to their quote request.
The customer gets what they wanted: a look at their own building with their own logo on it. You get something that helps you quote: a clear photo of the building, the logo, and an idea of where on the wall and how big.
A preview like this is stamped "Preview only. Not to scale. Not a design proof," so nobody confuses it with a finished design. It does not claim to be accurate. It exists so the customer can react to a rough picture.
A customer who takes a few minutes to place their logo on their own building is further along than one who typed "how much for a sign." They are picturing it, and that is a good sign.
A few tips make previews work better. A photo taken straight on, in daylight, from across the street, is far more useful than one taken at an angle at night. A logo with a clean background looks better on the wall.
Where design begins
A preview is not design. This is the line to hold.
The real design is still yours. You measure the wall, choose the materials, handle the spacing, check the codes, build the file and send a proof. That work starts after the deposit, the same as always. Nothing about the preview changes who does it or when.
Make sure the preview says so. The label should be on every image. Your quote should say that the preview is for illustration only, and that final size, position and appearance come from the design stage. If a customer says "but it looked bigger on the preview," you point to the label and the quote.
Keep your revision rules. A customer who sees the preview and says "move it left" is still on the preview. A customer who asks for change after change on a finished proof is on the design clock, and your rounds apply.
Winton Consulting's sign visualizer sits on the quote form. The customer uploads their photo and logo, places it on their wall, and saves the preview, which comes to you with the request. It is a preview tool, not a design tool, and Winton Consulting does not make designs for shops. The design stays with you.
Put the ideas to work.
Keep reading
More articles.
Design time
Limiting free design work before the deposit
Rounds of changes before any money comes in eat designer hours. One way to handle it is a rough look up front and a deposit before real design work starts.
Quoting
Getting every detail for a sign quote on the first try
Owners on sign forums say the slow part of quoting is getting details out of the customer. Asking the right questions up front cuts the back-and-forth.
Getting paid
Deposits and payment reminders for sign jobs
Chasing payment after the install is slow and awkward. A payment link with every quote and reminders on a schedule take most of the chasing off your plate.
