How do you handle signage and graphics in your store?

Our major signage is on the outside of the building. We do graphics, like cutouts, in our window, but we stick to plain white classic-looking letters. We post our upcoming events printed on photographic paper and mounted on a two-by-four-foot piece of foamcore on an easel inside the store. We also hang signs over product areas to identify them. We pay outside firms to do those signs. Our ad budget is 4 percent of sales, and we spend a fraction of that on signage. When it comes to individual products, we don't do much signage, unless it comes from the vendor and has a classy feel. It would probably be smart to sign some product to give customers an idea of how to use it, but I don't like the way it looks. I'd rather have our employees tell people about the product than have customers read an index card.

We've been in this shop for six years and we've changed the signage three times. We had the original signage, we updated it once, and then we had someone do two new graphics of topiaries on each side of the cornerstone. We don't like flashy neon; we're more subtle. Black and gold are our store colors. We did a beautiful flag announcing our winning the Gifts & Dec Merchandising Achievement Award last year. It was done in gold lettering printed on black canvas to match our outside color scheme of taupe with black awnings and gold accents. All our signs are done by our local graphic designer. It's important to us, so we spend 20 percent of out annual advertising budget when we update our signage, which isn't every year.

We invested deeply in a corporate identity package late last year and we've been implementing that within the store step by step. It cost about $5,000, and we had to go to two outside firms to find something we liked. Now we have a logo, colors, and consistent presentation in a package that we can work from in the future. We included our new logo and new style on the exterior. We had three different sign businesses help with different aspects of outside signage. That cost about $8,000. We plan to redecorate later this year and will be tying that theme into the interior and everything visual, so that we have a consistent brand identity. We have a template for merchandising signs and we do those ourselves. We're considering outside sources for those as well, but not until we do the new look.

On the front door I have my name and the hours we're open. If we're having a special event we put posters in the window. We do them on our computer, using the Publisher software program, in a simple, clean, contemporary style. We have a stanchion outside where I put a sign with our logo, our name, and a description of what we sell. I'm at the end of a four-block shopping district, so anything on the street that catches the eye makes a difference in our traffic because people glance down and if they don't see anything they go back up. Inside we do little signs like "great gift idea for Dad" for our metal tavern puzzles around Father's Day. I do those on the computer too, and update them for different occasions once a month. For our anniversary or sidewalk sale I've had a quick-sign place do a vinyl die-cut sign or banner. Because we do so much ourselves, we spend less than $300 a year on signage.